ENERGY AND CLIMATE CHANGE

Energy: Housing

Tessa Jowell: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change how much expenditure under the (a) Carbon Emissions Reduction Target and (b) Community Energy Saving Programme has been incurred in respect of properties in (i) London and (ii) the UK.

Gregory Barker: Best estimates of energy companies total costs in meeting their GB-wide Carbon Emissions Reduction Target (CERT) and Community Energy Saving Programme (CESP) obligations were detailed in the respective impact assessments at the outset of the schemes. Regionally disaggregated cost estimates have not been made. However, in terms of delivery activity, latest figures published by the Energy Saving Trust show that around 2.6 million homes had received insulation measures by March 2011, including almost 132,000 properties in London.
	At present, the Government do not have powers to require the obligated energy companies to disclose their CERT and CESP compliance costs. However, we are taking steps to ensure information is available about the cost of delivery under the forthcoming energy company obligation, which is due to replace the existing schemes at the end of 2012.

Solar Power

Caroline Flint: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what estimate his Department has made of the proportion of the average reduction in solar PV installation costs since 2009 which is accounted for by the substitution of UK-manufactured PV panels with imported panels.

Gregory Barker: The Department has not sought to make any such estimate.

Solar Power

Caroline Flint: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change with reference to his Department's document entitled Solar PV cost update January 2012, what proportion of the firms consulted mainly installed (a) imported and (b) UK-manufactured solar panels.

Gregory Barker: The Department does not hold this information.

ENVIRONMENT FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS

Animal Welfare: Circuses

Nicholas Dakin: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs pursuant to the answer of 25 January 2012, Official Report, column 250W, on animal welfare: circuses, when she plans to assess the relevance of the Austrian Constitutional Court decision; and when she expects to make an announcement on legislative proposals on the use of wild animals in circuses.

James Paice: We are continuing to assess the relevance of the Austrian Constitutional Court decision. We will be making an announcement on our legislative proposals shortly.

National Parks Authorities: Sustainable Development

Fiona O'Donnell: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs when she plans to launch a consultation on whether existing legislation for National Parks Authorities should reflect better their role in promoting sustainable development.

Richard Benyon: We have chosen to delay the consultation until after the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) is published. It is important to give our stakeholders an opportunity to consider the role of sustainable development in the NPPF before responding to the consultation on National Park Authorities.

Rights of Way: Ferndown

Christopher Chope: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what information her Department holds on the public rights of way of Uddens (Cannonhill) Plantation at Uddens Drive, Ferndown; and whether her Department has any plans to restrict them.

Richard Benyon: The management of public rights of way is the responsibility of the local highway authority. We are aware that there is a public bridleway running along the south western edge of the woodland and that the area is also dedicated for access on foot under the provisions in the Countryside and Rights of Way Act. Planning legislation provides for protection of public rights in the event that an application for planning permission is made on land with a public right of way.

TRANSPORT

Aviation: Olympic Games 2012

Maria Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what work her Department has done with National Air Transport Services on identifying (a) landing slots and (b) flight paths for additional flights to and from UK airports during the London 2012 Olympics.

Theresa Villiers: holding answer 20 February 2012
	The Department has worked with Airport Coordination Ltd, NATS, the CAA and the relevant airport operators to determine the available capacity at 40 airports and airfields across southern England during the Olympics period.
	These airports will be “slot co-ordinated” during the Games period—that is, all arrivals and departures for aircraft wishing to use controlled airspace must be made in accordance with a pre-booked take-off or landing slot. Slots will be allocated through Airport Coordination Ltd, the independent slot co-ordinator. These arrangements have been introduced in order to help manage the available airport and airspace capacity efficiently in view of the expected additional demand associated with the Olympics, and in particular to ensure that normal scheduled services are not disrupted by airspace congestion.
	In addition, NATS have designed some temporary changes and additions to controlled airspace which are aimed at increasing capacity, resilience and flow separation during the Games period.

Aviation: Olympic Games 2012

Maria Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what estimate her Department has made of potential changes to the number of (a) flights and (b) passengers flying to and from the UK during the London 2012 Olympics.

Theresa Villiers: holding answer 20 February 2012
	Studies conducted for the Department for Transport have estimated that there could be a net increase of around 240,000 passengers flying to and from the UK during the period between 17 July and 16 August 2012. The majority are expected to fly on existing scheduled air services, but the same studies estimated that the number of additional flights associated with the Olympic Games during this period to and from the UK (ie in each direction) could be as follows:
	
		
			  Number 
			 Commercial (charter) 350 
			 Positioning flights 65 
			 Business aviation (1)1,500 
			 "State" flights 119 
			 (1) Approximately

Crossrail Line: Kent

Gareth Johnson: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what assessment she has made of the potential to extend Crossrail into north Kent.

Theresa Villiers: The Department for Transport is committed to delivering the agreed Crossrail scheme which will run as far as Abbey Wood. The route from Abbey Wood to Gravesend and Ebbsfleet is safeguarded under the terms of the Safeguarding Direction of October 2009. Any extension to the route would require a strong business case.
	Rail passengers in north Kent will be able to access Crossrail services via Abbey Wood, from where fast connections into the City, the West End and beyond will be available, improving access to jobs, business and leisure facilities.

Cycling: Rural Areas

Tim Farron: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what steps her Department is taking to improve the safety of cyclists in rural areas.

Norman Baker: holding answer 20 February 2012
	The Department for Transport provides Integrated Transport Block funding to local transport authorities who have discretion to spend their allocations in line with their own priorities. As well as this, we have allocated £560 million to local authorities through the Local Sustainable Transport Fund in order to support measures that deliver economic growth and cut carbon, and 38 of the 39 projects which were awarded funding contained a cycling element.
	In addition, on 7 February 2012 I announced £15 million for cycling projects that will promote economic growth and cut carbon. This will include traffic calmed and traffic free routes linking local communities with employment centres, schools and other facilities, and improving cycle-rail integration at stations.
	Local highway authorities already have control of local speed limits, and should take full account of local communities' views in setting these limits. A key theme in the Government's Strategic Framework for Road Safety published in May 2011 is the empowerment of local communities, including enabling the public to compare road safety performance in their local area with other similar areas. This will help communities to challenge local service providers on issues such as speed limits. Decisions on speed limits should be based upon comprehensive analysis of all the costs and benefits.

Cycling: Training

Tim Farron: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what plans her Department has to increase the number of students taking cycling proficiency courses in schools.

Norman Baker: holding answer 20 February 2012
	Bikeability is ‘cycling proficiency’ for the 21st century and gives people the skills and confidence to cycle safely in modern road conditions.
	The Department currently provides grant funding of up to £11 million per financial year from the Local Sustainable Transport Fund. This funding level will continue until at least March 2015.
	This funding is available to local highway authorities and School Games Organiser Host Schools who bid for a contribution of up to £40 per training place. This provides for up to 275,000 school children to take part in on-road cycle training every year.
	Previously grants were for level 2 training only, aimed at year 6 school children. From 2012-13 grant funding is available to train school children between school years 5-9 on either level 1 and 2 combined, level 2 or level 3 courses. This will allow for a greater number of children to be eligible for training, as well as providing them with access to the level of training most appropriate for their needs.

Directly Operated Railways: Manpower

Rachel Reeves: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many people were employed by (a) Directly Operated Railways, (b) High Speed Two Limited and (c) Northern Lighthouse Board in (i) 2010-11 and (ii) 2011-12.

Norman Baker: holding answer 20 February 2012
	The number of people employed by (a) Directly Operated Railways, (b) High Speed Two Ltd and (c) Northern Lighthouse Board in (i) 2010-11 and (ii) 2011 -12 are:
	
		
			 Body FTE March 2011 FTE January 2012 
			 Directly Operated Railways 3.9 3.4 
			 High Speed Two Ltd 11.5 34.2 
			 Northern Lighthouse Board 194.1 185

High Speed 2 Railway Line

Jonathan Edwards: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport whether there will be Barnett consequentials arising from Government funding for High Speed 2.

Danny Alexander: I have been asked to reply 
	on behalf the Treasury.
	It is not possible to identify Barnett consequentials at this time. Once the detailed budgeting and funding arrangements have been decided Barnett consequentials will be allocated in the normal way.

Liverpool Port: Finance

John Denham: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what estimate she has made of the total level of public subsidy including European Regional Development Fund funding, awarded to the City of Liverpool Cruise Terminal.

Michael Penning: holding answer 20 February 2012
	As set out in the Department's 2011 consultation, the subsidies were estimated as:
	
		
			  £ million 
			 North West Development Agency 7.16 
			 Single Regeneration Budget 1.88 
			 European Regional Development Fund 8.62 
			 Mersey Waterfront Regional Park 0.16 
			 Total 17.82 
		
	
	These figures do not include other net expenditure by Liverpool city council itself, as owner-operator of the terminal.

Liverpool Port: Finance

John Denham: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport from whom she will be taking independent advice on an appropriate figure for the level of repayment of grants from the City of Liverpool Cruise Terminal.

Michael Penning: holding answer 20 February 2012
	Advice will be taken from a financial consultant selected from the Government Procurement Services Management Consultancy and Accounting Services framework. An invitation to quote is currently open.

M42

Dan Byles: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many compensation claims were settled under the statutory compensation scheme in respect of the construction of the M42 in each of the last 10 years.

Michael Penning: The following tables list how many claims made relating to the construction of the M42 under the statutory compensation schemes were settled in each of the last 10 years.
	
		
			 The number of claims settled for property and land acquired (includes blight, compulsory purchase, by agreement, and discretionary purchase) 
			 2011 1 
			 2010 1 
			 2009 1 
			 2008 0 
			 2007 0 
			 2006 1 
			 2005 0 
			 2004 2 
			 2003 33 
			 2002 1 
		
	
	
		
			 The number of claims settled for depreciation caused by the road in use 
			 2011 3 
			 2010 0 
			 2009 9 
			 2008 0 
			 2007 0 
			 2006 1 
			 2005 0 
			 2004 4 
			 2003 0 
			 2002 0 
			 Note: Not all claims are settled in the year in which they are made.

Network Rail: Compensation

Katy Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how much compensation was paid to each franchised train operator by Network Rail for delays and cancellations attributed to Network Rail in the latest period for which figures are available; and how much was paid by each operator to passengers affected by these delays in that period.

Norman Baker: The information requested is not held by the Department.
	Information on compensation to train operators is held by Network Rail. The compensation regime is a contractual element within the track access agreement between Network Rail and each operator, and is overseen by the Office for Rail Regulation.
	The Department only holds information on compensation payments to passengers for those train operating companies which operate the delay/repay compensation system. Such compensation payments are made regardless of whether the delay was attributed to Network Rail or a train operator, so it is not possible to identify how much compensation is attributable to each.

Railways: Electrification

Jonathan Edwards: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport pursuant to the answer of 22 July 2010, Official Report, column 512W, on railways: electrification, what further estimates have been made at 2009 prices of the cost of electrifying (a) the Great Western railway line from Swansea to London, (b) the North Wales coastline from Holyhead to Chester, (c) the Valley Lines Network, (d)  the Severn Tunnel Diversionary Line and (e) lines to the West of Swansea (i) from Carmarthen to Swansea and (ii) from Carmarthen to Western terminus stations.

Theresa Villiers: The Department has not made any further estimates of Great Western electrification to Swansea, the North Wales Coast line, the Valley Lines Network, the Severn Tunnel diversionary route via Gloucester or lines west of Swansea to Carmarthen.

Roads: Accidents

Tim Farron: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what estimate she has made of the number of (a) accidents and (b) deaths in road traffic collisions involving cyclists in (i) England, (ii) the North West, (iii) Cumbria and (iv) South Lakeland in each of the last five years.

Michael Penning: holding answer 20 February 2012
	The information requested is given in the following tables:
	
		
			 (a) Reported personal injury road traffic accidents involving a pedal cyclist 
			  Area 
			  England North west Cumbria South Lakeland 
			 2006 15,167 1,913 116 25 
			 2007 15,281 1,889 134 33 
			 2008 15,410 1,862 113 27 
			 2009 16,157 1,934 121 29 
			 2010 16,355 1,953 109 27 
		
	
	
		
			 (b) All reported deaths resulting from these accidents 
			  Area 
			  England North west Cumbria South Lakeland 
			 2006 133 15 2 0 
			 2007 135 15 3 0 
			 2008 106 13 0 0 
			 2009 98 8 2 0 
			 2010 109 14 3 0 
		
	
	
		
			 (c) Pedal cyclist deaths resulting from these accidents 
			  Area 
			  England North west Cumbria South Lakeland 
			 2006 127 14 2 0 
			 2007 129 15 3 0 
			 2008 102 13 0 0 
			 2009 93 8 2 0 
			 2010 102 12 3 0

Roads: Birmingham

Dan Byles: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many compensation claims were settled under the statutory compensation scheme relating to the construction of the Birmingham Northern Relief Road in each of the last 10 years.

Michael Penning: The following tables list how many claims made relating to the construction of the Birmingham Northern Relief Road under the statutory compensation schemes were settled in each of the last 10 years.
	
		
			 The number of claims settled for property and land acquired (includes blight, compulsory purchase, by agreement, and discretionary purchase) 
			 2011 16 
			 2010 31 
			 2009 32 
			 2008 60 
			 2007 43 
			 2006 80 
			 2005 31 
			 2004 69 
			 2003 41 
			 2002 0 
		
	
	
		
			 The number of claims settled for depreciation caused by the road in use 
			 2011 136 
			 2010 255 
			 2009 829 
			 2008 5,692 
			 2007 3,959 
			 2006 205 
			 2005 555 
			 2004 27 
			 2003 0 
			 2002 0 
			 Note: Not all claims are settled in the year in which they are made.

Transport: Schools

Lilian Greenwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what steps her Department is taking together with the Department of Education to develop a strategy for children's travel which encourages healthy and safe active travel to school.

Norman Baker: holding answer 20 February 2012
	In October 2010 the Department for Transport and Department for Education jointly published the evaluation of their shared Travel to School Initiative. This provides local authorities and schools with evidence to inform their own efforts to encourage active travel to school and is available at:
	http://www.dft.gov.uk/publications/travelling-to-school-evaluation/
	Local authorities are under a statutory duty to promote sustainable transport, such as cycling and walking, to and from school. The Departments continue to work together, along with the Department of Health, to promote and support active travel in children.
	I met with the Under-Secretary of State for Education, my hon. Friend the Member for East Worthing and Shoreham (Tim Loughton), in September 2011 to discuss how DfT and DfE can work together on school travel going forward. DfE have commissioned an ‘Efficiency and Practice Review of Home to School Transport’, which they will be publishing in the near future.

HOUSE OF COMMONS COMMISSION

Food: Waste Disposal

Kerry McCarthy: To ask the hon. Member for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross, representing the House of Commons Commission what steps he is taking to implement the waste hierarchy approach for managing food waste generated by House of Commons food outlets.

John Thurso: The waste hierarchy set out in the Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2011 is: prevention; preparing for re-use; recycling; other recovery; disposal. Food waste is currently disposed of as part of the mixed general waste stream, which is sent to a local “energy from incineration” facility; none of the food or office waste produced on the Estate is disposed of to landfill.
	The Catering and Retail Service seeks to reduce the amount of food waste by various means. These include: the use, where appropriate, of pre-prepared fresh or frozen vegetables and other ingredients; careful production planning and menu management; the re-use and re-sale of foods that are still fit for consumption; good stock rotation practices; careful handling and storage of delicate foods, in particular with regard to temperature control and cross-contamination risks; and purchasing of quantities and package sizes that are appropriate for the needs of the business.
	Work is now under way with the House's new waste management contractor to reduce waste generated on-site and increase recycling and composting rates. A pilot scheme to compost food waste from the Terrace kitchen is being organised, with extension to all outlets on the Estate to be pursued thereafter, which will move the House's food waste management arrangements further up the waste hierarchy.

Hacking

Karl McCartney: To ask the hon. Member for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross, representing the House of Commons Commission whether the House of Commons Commission has received any reports of hacking by third parties of Parliamentary Estate (a) telephone services and (b) servers.

John Thurso: It is not the policy of the Commission to comment on security matters.

WORK AND PENSIONS

Employment Schemes: Apprentices

Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many Work Programme job outcomes have been the result of placement on an apprenticeship in the last year.

Chris Grayling: The Department intends to start publishing official statistics on referrals to the Work programme today and on job outcomes from the autumn. This is in line with guidelines set by the UK Statistics Authority to ensure published statistics meet the required high quality standards.

Housing Benefit

Karen Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will place in the Library copies of all correspondence received by his Department from local authorities on the potential effect of reductions in local housing allowance on (a) homelessness or (b) local authority budgets.

Steve Webb: The information is not available in the format requested and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

Housing Benefit

Karen Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will publish a list of all the correspondence he has received to date from (a) individuals and (b) institutions on the potential impact of (i) reductions in local housing allowance and (ii) the proposed household benefit cap.

Steve Webb: The information is not available in the format requested and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

Housing Benefit

Liam Byrne: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what proportion of claimants of housing benefit were (a) employed and (b) unemployed in the latest period for which figures are available.

Steve Webb: The economic status of all HB recipients is not available. Information is only available for those HB recipients whose claim is not passported: that is for those who do not receive either income support, jobseekers allowance (income-based), employment and support allowance (income based), or pension credit (guarantee credit). A small proportion of the passported cases will be in part-time employment. The available information is shown in the following table.
	
		
			 Number and percentage of housing benefit claimants (not passported) by employment status, in Great Britain: October 2011 
			  Not passported 
			 All not passported 1,678,080 
			 Not employed 836,710 
			 Percentage not employed 49.9 
			 Employed 841,370 
			 Percentage employed 50.1 
			 Notes: 1. The data refer to benefit units, which may be a single person or a couple. 2. Recipients are as at second Thursday of the month. 3. These data incorporate the local authority changes from 1 April 2009. 4. SHBE is a monthly electronic scan of claimant level data direct from local authority computer systems. It replaces quarterly aggregate clerical returns. The data are available monthly from November 2008 and October 2011 are the most recent available. 5. These data refer to people receiving housing benefit not in receipt of a passported benefit and are recorded as being in employment if their local authority has recorded employment income from either the main claimant, or the claimant's partner (if applicable), in calculating the housing benefit award. People receiving passported benefits who are working part-time cannot be identified and are therefore not included in this analysis. 6. Does not include recipients with unknown passported status. 7. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10, and percentages to the nearest 0.1%. Source: Single Housing Benefit Extract (SHBE).

Housing Benefit: Lancashire

Jake Berry: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many working households within (a) Rossendale borough council and (b) Blackburn and Darwen council area were in receipt of housing benefit in the most recent period for which figures are available.

Steve Webb: The economic status of all HB recipients is not available. Information is only available for those HB recipients whose claim is not passported: that is for those who do not receive either income support, jobseekers allowance (income-based), employment and support allowance (income-based), or pension credit (guarantee credit). A small proportion of the passported cases will be in part-time employment. The available information is shown in the following table.
	
		
			 Housing benefit recipients, non-passported, in employment, in Rossendale and Blackburn & Darwen local authority areas: October-2011 
			  October 2011 
			   of which 
			  All non passported In employment 
			 Blackburn with Darwen UA 3,610 1,680 
			 Rossendale 1,490 590 
			 Notes: 1. The data refer to benefit units, which may be a single person or a couple. 2. Recipients are as at second Thursday of the month. 3. These data incorporate the local authority changes from 1 April 2009. 4. SHBE is a monthly electronic scan of claimant level data direct from local authority computer systems. It replaces quarterly aggregate clerical returns. The data are available monthly from November 2008 and October 2011 are the most recent available. 5. These data refer to people receiving housing benefit not in receipt of a passported benefit and are recorded as being in employment if their local authority has recorded employment income from either the main claimant, or the claimant's partner (if applicable), in calculating the housing benefit award. People receiving passported housing benefit who are working part-time cannot be identified and are therefore not included in this analysis. 6. Does not include recipients with unknown passported status. 7. Numbers are rounded to the nearest 10. Source: Single Housing Benefit Extract (SHBE).

Incapacity Benefit

Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what progress he has made on reassessing recipients of incapacity benefit.

Chris Grayling: IB (IS) reassessment has been successfully implemented and the reassessment exercise remains on track to be completed by spring 2014.
	We are reassessing around 11,000 claimants on incapacity benefits a week.
	Those who are ready and fit for work are being supported into work via the work programme.
	Those who are not fit for work will continue to receive ongoing support for as long as they need it.

Post Office Card Account

Justin Tomlinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what support he plans to provide to individuals to move from a Post Office card account to a bank account for the purposes of promoting financial inclusion.

Steve Webb: In preparation for the introduction of universal credit in 2013 my Department has been working with the banking sector, credit unions, and Post Office Ltd to explore the opportunity to create cost-effective budgeting accounts that would provide access to mainstream banking facilities such as direct debits. Such accounts would promote financial inclusion by helping lower income families take more responsibility for household budgeting and set aside money for such things as rent and fuel bills.

Post Office Card Account

Justin Tomlinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what discussions he has had with Royal Mail Ltd on the future of Post Office card accounts; and if he will make a statement.

Steve Webb: There have been no recent discussions between DWP and Royal Mail Ltd on the future of Post Office card accounts. The Post Office card account contract is due to run to March 2015, with the option of a two-year extension beyond that date.
	The Department has had dialogue with Royal Mail Ltd including, but not limited to, the provision of new types of budgeting accounts to support the introduction of universal credit.

UN Conventions on the Rights of the Child

Sharon Hodgson: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions when he plans to respond to the conclusions of the child rights impact assessment of the Welfare Reform Bill published by the Children's Commissioner for England on 11 January 2012.

Maria Miller: An official response to the child rights impact assessment was sent on 13 February 2012.

Working Tax Credit

Kate Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what analysis he has made of the impact of the freeze in the couple and lone parent element of working tax credit announced in the Autumn Statement on the incentive for women to (a) take up paid work and (b) increase their hours of paid work.

David Gauke: I have been asked to reply 
	on behalf of the Treasury.
	No analysis has been made of the impact of the freeze in the couple and lone parent elements of working tax credit announced in the autumn statement on the incentive for women to (a) take up paid work and (b) increase their hours of paid work.

WOMEN AND EQUALITIES

Departmental Billing

Chris Ruane: To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities how many and what proportion of her Department's invoices from its private sector suppliers were paid (a) within 14 days, (b) between 15 and 30 days, (c) between 31 and 60 days, (d) between 61 and 90 days and (e) more than 90 days after receipt in the last 12 months.

Lynne Featherstone: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given on 9 February 2012, Official Report, columns 348-49W, from the Minister for Immigration, the hon. Member for Ashford (Damian Green).

Departmental Pay

Priti Patel: To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities how much was paid to officials in the Government Equalities Office in (a) bonuses, (b) allowances and (c) other payments additional to basic salary in each of the last two years for which figures are available; what categories of payment may be made to officials in addition to basic salary; what the monetary value is of each category of payment; and what the monetary value was of the 20 largest such payments made in each of the last two years.

Lynne Featherstone: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given on 9 February 2012, Official Report, columns 350-52W, from the Minister for Immigration, the hon. Member for Ashford (Damian Green).

Part-Time Employment

Kate Green: To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities what work her Department has done to follow up the findings of the evaluation of the quality part-time work fund published by the Government Equalities Office in November 2010; and if she will make a statement.

Lynne Featherstone: The Quality Part-time Work Fund was established by the previous Government following a recommendation from the Women and Work Commission in 2006. An evaluation of the fund was conducted in 2009 and a final report published in November 2010.
	The Government are committed to improving flexibility in the workplace including in senior roles and set out proposals to achieve this aim in the Modern Workplaces consultation. These include extending the right to request flexible working to all employees and introducing a new system of flexible parental leave. The Government will publish their response to the consultation in due course.

BUSINESS, INNOVATION AND SKILLS

Apprentices

Liam Byrne: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills which 10 firms received the most funding for apprenticeships in the last year for which figures are available; and what the total monetary value of funding was to each such firm.

John Hayes: The following table, based on information provided by the Skills Funding Agency (SFA), shows which 10 employers which received the most funding for apprenticeships in the 2010/11 academic year and the total amount of funding actually received.
	
		
			 Name Total actual payments 
			 Mcdonald's Restaurants Ltd 10,176,007.85 
			 British Gas Services Ltd 3,703,673.69 
			 British Telecommunications Public Ltd Company 3,176,988.96 
			 Phones 4u Ltd 2,915,751.99 
			 Bae Systems Plc 2,797,402.51 
			 Network Rail Infrastructure Ltd 1,934,953.95 
			 TUI UK Ltd 1,893,502.34 
			 Toni and Guy UK Training Ltd 1,549,046.00 
			 Jarvis Training Management Ltd 1,432,434.49 
			 Tesco Stores Ltd 1,354,278.77 
		
	
	The SFA also publish details of funding allocations made to individual colleges, training organisations and employers for the delivery of apprenticeships on their website:
	http://skillsfundingagency.bis.gov.uk/providers/programmes

Apprentices

Alex Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills how many people are currently undertaking an Access to Apprenticeships placement; and how many such apprentices are aged (a) 16 to 18 and (b) 19 to 24; and how many were (i) not in education, training or employment for the whole of the preceding 13 weeks or more prior to the start date and (ii) were assessed and eligible for additional learning support.

John Hayes: Table 1 shows the number of people starting an apprenticeship framework through the Access to Apprenticeship pathway, by age, between August 2011 and October 2011. These are provisional figures for the first quarter of the 2011/12 academic year and will change as further data returns are received from further education colleges and providers.
	
		
			 Table 1: Access to Apprenticeship, by age, August 2011 to October 2011 (provisional) 
			 Under 19 1,100 
			 19-24 250 
			 25+ (1)— 
			 Total 1,350 
			 (1) Indicates a base value of less than 5. Notes: 1. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10. 2. Age is based on age at the start of the programme. Source: Individualised Learner Record 
		
	
	To be eligible for the Access to Apprenticeship pathway, an individual must either (i) be defined as not in education, employment or training (NEET) for the whole of the preceding 13-weeks or more prior to start date, and/or (ii) assessed and eligible for additional learning support (additional learning needs (ALN), additional social needs (ASN) or both). However, information is not available centrally on the number of people on the Access to Apprenticeship pathway that fit each of these criteria.
	Information on the number of people joining the Access to Apprenticeship pathway is published in footnotes to Tables 18 and 19 of a quarterly Statistical First Release (SFR). The latest SFR was published on 31 January 2012:
	http://www.thedataservice.org.uk/statistics/statisticalfirstrelease/sfr_current
	The National Apprenticeship Service is monitoring and reviewing the impact of this new pathway in its first year, working with departmental officials and training provider representatives, in order to ensure its effectiveness in meeting its objective.
	Apprenticeship starts increased to 457,200 in the 2010/11 academic year, an increase of 63.5% on 2009/10.

Apprentices: Nuclear Power

Mark Menzies: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills whether he has had discussions with Westinghouse in Lancashire on apprenticeships in the nuclear industry.

John Hayes: While I have not personally met with Westinghouse, officials from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills recently met with the National Skills Academy for Nuclear, of which Westinghouse are board members, to discuss the development of an apprenticeship strategy for the nuclear sector.
	The National Apprenticeship Service advise me that that Westinghouse are very engaged in delivering apprenticeships both within their own organisation and to the supply chain, (both nuclear and engineering), within the local area from their training facility, thus promoting apprenticeships to a wider range of employers and individuals, and they should be congratulated on that.

Business

Chris Skidmore: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills how many companies registered with Companies House were actively trading in each region in each year since 2002.

Norman Lamb: Companies House does not hold any information in regional format. The information could be developed but only at a disproportionate cost; it could only be retrieved as a bespoke product at a cost of at least several thousand pounds.
	Additionally, Companies House does not have information on a company’s current trading status, as its most up-to-date information is derived from accounts filed for a company’s previous financial year.

Business: Finance

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what evidence he considered before deciding to abolish the Grant for Business Investment scheme.

Mark Prisk: The Grant for Business Investment scheme has not been abolished. It remains open to large exceptional projects. Its scope has been reduced to reflect that the fact that its principle delivery mechanism, the regional development agencies, are in the course of closing down.

Business: Government Assistance

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what assessment was made of the effectiveness of the Grant for Business Investment scheme before it was abolished; and if he will make a statement.

Mark Prisk: Regular assessments have been made of the effectiveness of national regional aid schemes over a period of time. The most recent “Evaluation of Regional Selective Assistance (RSA) and its successor, Selective Finance for Investment in England (SFIE)”, was published in March 2008. Grant for Business Investment is the name given to the current English national scheme; it replaced SFIE in 2008. It remains open to large exceptional projects.

Climate Change

David Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills if he will publish a table setting out the Met Office's estimate of average global temperatures for each year since 1997.

Norman Lamb: The Met Office global average temperature record, produced in collaboration with the Climate Research Unit at the university of East Anglia, is publicly available through the Met Office website at
	http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/research/monitoring/climate/surface-temperature

Copyright: Arts

Mike Weatherley: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what assessment he has made of the financial effect on the creative industries of his proposals in the consultation on copyright to (a) widen the exception for education, (b) remove the licensing scheme for educational uses and (c) introduce a statutory code for collective licensing.

Norman Lamb: holding answer 20 February 2012
	None of the Government's proposals would remove licensing schemes for educational uses, so no assessment of their removal has been made.
	The Government are exploring the scope of licensing schemes with regard to certain limited uses of copyrighted materials. Initial impact assessments for education exceptions and proposals to introduce codes of conduct for collecting societies were prepared prior to consultation from sources including publicly available data and evidence provided to the Intellectual Property Office by interested parties.
	The Government's copyright consultation, which runs until 21 March 2012, will provide an opportunity for interested organisations and individuals to contribute evidence to help inform more robust analysis of the options under consideration.

Copyright: Economic Growth

Dan Jarvis: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what analysis his Department has conducted to determine the likely effects of implementing the Hargreaves Review of intellectual property and growth's recommendations on economic growth.

Norman Lamb: holding answer 20 February 2012
	The initial impact assessments published with the current consultation on copyright were developed on the basis of available evidence from a range of sources, including the submissions made to the Hargreaves Review. As the Government develops its proposals on the rest of the Hargreaves agenda impact assessments will be developed and published alongside them.

Copyright: Economic Growth

Dan Jarvis: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what analysis his Department has conducted on the likely effect of his copyright consultation proposals on economic growth.

Norman Lamb: holding answer 20 February 2012
	The initial impact assessments published with the current consultation on copyright were developed on the basis of available evidence from a range of sources, including the submissions made to the Hargreaves Review. The Government are now seeking more detailed evidence on the costs and benefits to all parties who could be affected by the proposals, through public consultation.

Food: Industry

Anne McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills when he expects to present a revised Groceries Adjudicator Bill and if he will make a statement.

Norman Lamb: The Government are committed to setting up a Groceries Code Adjudicator as soon as parliamentary time allows. As the Leader of the House of Commons, the right hon. Member for North West Hampshire (Sir George Young), said on 15 December 2011, Official Report, column 937, the Groceries Code Adjudicator Bill is a strong candidate for consideration as part of the second Session of Parliament.

Free School Meals

David Blunkett: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills how many students at Oxford and Cambridge universities were previously in receipt of free school meals in the latest year for which figures are available; and if he will make a statement.

John Hayes: The information is as follows:
	
		
			 Estimated number of English maintained school pupils receiving free school meals at age 15 in 2004/05 who progressed to Cambridge or Oxford universities by age 19: academic year 2008/09 
			 University Former FSM students (1) 
			 Cambridge 25 
			 Oxford 20 
			 (1 )Student numbers are rounded to the nearest multiple of 5. Source: Matched data from the DfE National Pupil Database, the Higher Education Statistics Agency Student Record and the Learning and Skills Council Individualised Learner Record

Gender: Equality

Kate Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what objectives the Skills Funding Agency has set relating to the promotion of gender equality.

John Hayes: The Skills Funding Agency is producing a set of equality objectives as part of its draft Single Equality Scheme. These will be finalised by 6 April 2012, in line with the requirements of the Equality Act 2010, and will be supported by an action plan. The objectives apply to all protected characteristics, including gender, and aim to embed equality into the decisions and activities of the agency.

Higher Education

Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills when he expects to bring forward legislative proposals on reform of higher education.

David Willetts: We cannot pre-empt the Queen's Speech by making definitive pronouncements about precisely how and when this legislation will be taken forward. However, subject to parliamentary time, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills intends to bring forward legislation to enable our reforms as set out in our White Paper and regulatory framework consultations.

Higher Education: Student Numbers

Shabana Mahmood: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills which higher education providers submitted bids to the Higher Education Funding Council for England for contestable student places; and for how many places each provider bid.

John Hayes: The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) will confirm the allocation of higher education places to institutions that have successfully bid from the contestable margin, by the end of February, following an appeals process. HEFCE will make an announcement about the outcome of that process shortly afterwards.
	HEFCE do not intend to publish information about which individual institutions have bid for contestable places or how many places they have bid for.

Overseas Students: Saudi Arabia

Daniel Kawczynski: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills how many Saudi citizens were studying in the UK in (a) 2008, (b) 2009 and (c) 2010.

John Hayes: Information on the number of enrolments for Saudi Arabian domiciled students is shown in the table, for UK higher education institutions. Figures are provided for the academic years 2008/09, 2009/10 and 2010/11. Equivalent figures for enrolments at further education colleges are not available as information on the domicile of learners at further education colleges is not held.
	
		
			 Saudi Arabian domiciled (1)  enrolments (2) . UK higher education institutions academic years 2007/08 to 2010/11 
			 Academic year Enrolments 
			 2008/09 5,205 
			 2009/10 8,340 
			 2010/11 10,270 
			 (1) This field of the HESA Student Record records the country of the student's permanent or home address prior to entry to the course. (2) Covers students in all years of study. Note: Figures are based on a HESA standard registration population and have been rounded to the nearest five, so components may not sum to totals. Source: Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) Student Record.

Overseas Trade

Richard Shepherd: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what the monetary value of UK exports to other EU countries was, excluding the Rotterdam-Antwerp effect, in each year since 1997.

Mark Prisk: holding answer 20 February 2012
	The Office for National Statistics produces its trade statistics in accordance with international guidelines. The statistics are based on data collected by HM Revenue and Customs. When the information on trade flows is collected, exporters are explicitly asked to state the final destination of the goods or services which are being exported. It is not possible to estimate the possible impact of the Rotterdam-Antwerp effect without increasing the burden on at least some businesses.
	The monetary value of UK exports of goods to the EU27 for the years since 1997 is as follows:
	
		
			  £ million 
			 1997 99,891 
			 1998 99,300 
			 1999 101,473 
			 2000 112,436 
			 2001 114,373 
			 2002 114,689 
			 2003 111,252 
			 2004 111,678 
			 2005 121,478 
			 2006 152,512 
			 2007 127,684 
			 2008 141,834 
			 2009 124,700 
			 2010 142,208 
			 Source: ONS Balance of Payments (Pink Book)

Overseas Trade

Richard Shepherd: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what steps his Department is taking to ensure the accuracy of UK Balance of Payment statistics with regards to the (a) Rotterdam effect and (b) Netherlands distortion; and if he will make a statement.

Mark Prisk: holding answer 20 February 2012
	The UK Balance of Payment statistics are produced by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), using trade in goods data from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC). The ONS follows the international standards relating to balance of payments and international investment position statistics.
	Balance of Payments statistics are National Statistics. National Statistics are produced to high professional standards set out in the Code of Practice for Official Statistics. They are produced free from political influence.
	While the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills is not responsible for the production of the Balance of Payments statistics, its statisticians have close working relationships with data producers in ONS and HMRC, and are members of the Balance of Payments Statistics User Group.
	The ONS issued a written statement on 13 February 2012 regarding the treatment of statistics on exports to the European Union published by the Office for National Statistics and the account these take of trans-shipments to non-EU countries (the “Rotterdam effect”). This will be published in Hansard shortly.
	With regards to the “Netherlands distortion”, the ONS state the following in their FDI publication:
	“In line with international agreements on country allocation for FDI purposes, the analysis of UK FDI abroad (outward) is based on the country of ownership of the immediate subsidiary. Similarly the analysis of FDI in the UK (inward) is based on the country that owns the immediate parent company. Thus, FDI in a UK company may be attributed to the country of the intervening foreign subsidiary, rather than the country of the ultimate parent.
	The relative importance of the Netherlands and Luxembourg as destinations for direct investment by UK companies may partly reflect the presence of so-called Special Purpose Entities (SPEs) in these countries. The term SPE is used to refer to entities such as financing subsidiaries, shell companies and conduits, which typically do not conduct any significant operations in the country in which they are resident, other than to pass through investment from their parent company to an affiliate in another country.”

Overseas Trade: Middle East

Duncan Hames: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills if he will list the projects which led to (a) Egypt and (b) Sudan owing its current debts to UK Export Finance.

Norman Lamb: holding answer 20 February 2012
	The Export Credits Guarantee Department (UK Export Finance) is currently carrying out an exercise to ascertain what information exists to be able to identify individual projects. Because of the age of the related export contracts and the sheer volume of files involved, this exercise is ongoing.
	When it is complete, the outcome will be placed in the Libraries of the House.

Student Loans Company: Pay

Nick Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills when the Permanent Secretary to his Department became aware of the arrangements for remunerating the chief executive of the Student Loans Company.

David Willetts: I refer the right hon. Member to the answer I gave on 20 February 2012, Official Report, column reference 561W.

Supermarkets: Competition

Zac Goldsmith: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what recent assessment the Office of Fair Trading has made of market features restricting, preventing or distorting competition between supermarkets and small independent retailers.

Norman Lamb: The Office of Fair Trading made a market investigation referral to the Competition Commission in respect of the groceries market in May 2006. This resulted in the latter's 2008 report, which can be viewed at the following weblink
	http://www.competition-commission.org.uk/inquiries/ref2006/grocery/index.htm

HEALTH

Health Allocation Formula

David Mowat: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans he has to review the health allocation formula.

Simon Burns: The independent Advisory Committee on Resource Allocation constantly reviews the approach and has been asked to support the detailed development of allocations for clinical commissioning groups and local authorities for their future public health responsibilities. Their recommendations will be published in due course.

Patient Outcomes

Nicky Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what progress he has made in improving outcomes for NHS patients.

Anne Milton: Last December we published data against 30 indicators in the new NHS Outcomes Framework. Progress will continue with our emphasis on outcomes rather than process.
	The data shows that for 25 of these new measures the national health service has improved or maintained performance including Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infections down by half and C. difficile infections down by 40% since 2008-09.

NHS Hospitals: Debt

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps he is taking to reduce the burden of debt on NHS hospitals.

Andrew Lansley: Of 244 foundation trusts and national health service trusts, in the last financial year 231 ended the year in surplus and only 13 in operating deficit.
	Some NHS trusts however have historic debt issues. For each of these, we are working progressively to resolve these issues and ensure that they deliver high quality services, enabling them to achieve foundation trust status with the clear benefits that this brings.

NHS Dentistry

Neil Parish: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps he is taking to improve access to NHS dentistry.

Paul Burstow: Access has already grown by over three quarters of a million since May 2010, with 991,000 more patients able to see a national health service dentist. We announced last week an extra £28 million in year funding to increase this still further.

Competition: NHS

Bill Esterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent representations he has received from health care professionals on the effect of increased competition on the NHS.

Anne Milton: The Government have listened to a wide range of representations throughout the passage of the Health and Social Care Bill, including from health care professionals.
	Ministers have frequently met health care professionals and listened to their views on issues, including those relating to competition.

Health Inequalities

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what changes his Department has made to the level of funding to address health inequalities in the last 12 months.

Anne Milton: In the current financial year, primary care trusts will receive an average growth of 3% in their total funding, and in 2012-13 total funding will grow by 2.8%. It is for them to decide how to prioritise their spending to meet the needs of their communities, including reducing health inequalities.

Patient Demand

Edward Leigh: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps he is taking to make the NHS more responsive to patient demand.

Anne Milton: Making the NHS more responsiveness to patients’ needs was set out in “Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS”, as a central theme in the Government’s vision to place patients and the public at the heart of the NHS.
	To deliver this vision the Health and Social Care Bill will place new legal duties on the NHS Commissioning Board and Clinical Commissioning Groups to promote the involvement of patients in decisions about their care and treatment and to involve patients and public in their planning and decision making. We are committed to driving continuous improvements in the quality of care, by giving patients greater choice and control over their treatment, and by making shared decision-making the norm in our health and social care services: “no decision about me, without me” and “no decision about us, without us”.

Private Health Care

David Hanson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what proportion of beds will be occupied by private patients in the NHS in each year to 2015.

Simon Burns: The Department does not collect this information. The NHS locally must ensure that the right number of beds are available and that NHS funds are invested efficiently to deliver high quality NHS patient care. NHS commissioners, through legal contracts with NHS providers, are responsible for ensuring timely and high-quality care for NHS patients.

Health and Social Care Bill

Cathy Jamieson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent representations he has received from healthcare professionals on the Health and Social Care Bill.

Anne Milton: The Government have received a wide range of representations throughout the passage of the Health and Social Care Bill, including from healthcare professionals.
	As a result, we have substantially strengthened our proposals. We accepted all the core recommendations of the NHS Future Forum.

Services: Older People

David Crausby: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent assessment he has made of the quality of services for older people.

Paul Burstow: A number of independent audits, investigations and inspections have revealed long standing and unacceptable variations in the standard of care older people receive in the national health service and social care. The Government are determined to root out poor quality care wherever it is found. We have established the National Nursing and Care Quality Forum to work with patients, carers and professionals to spread best practice.

Accident and Emergency Departments

Chris Skidmore: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many patients had more than (a) one, (b) five, (c) 10, (d) 20, (e) 50 and (f) 100 finished admission episodes which were emergency admissions in the last year for which figures are available.

Simon Burns: The available information is shown in the following table.
	
		
			 Count of patients (1)  admitted to hospital (2)  as an emergency admission (3)  on more than one occasion in the period April 2010 to March 2011 
			 Activity in English NHS  h ospitals and English NHS commissioned activity in the independent sector 
			 Number of emergency admissions (4) Patient count 
			 More than 1 909,904 
			 More than 5 40,299 
			 More than 10 5,215 
			 More than 20 575 
			 More than 50 34 
			 More than 100 5 
			 (1) Patient counts Patient counts are based on the unique patient identifier, HESID. This identifier is derived from a patient's date of birth, postcode, sex, local patient identifier and NHS number, using a standard algorithm. Where data are incomplete, HESID might wrongly link episodes or fail to recognise episodes for the same patient. Care is therefore needed, especially where the data includes duplicate records. Patient counts must not be summed across a table where patients may have episodes in more than one cell. More information about HESID can be found at: www.hesonline.nhs.uk/Ease/servlet/ContentServer?siteID=1937&categoryID=330 (2) Finished admission episodes A finished admission episode (FAE) is the first period of in-patient care under one consultant within one health care provider. FAEs are counted against the year in which the admission episode finishes. Admissions do not represent the number of in-patients, as a person may have more than one admission within the year. (3) Emergency Admission An emergency admission is an admission to hospital where the method of admission is recorded as: 21 = Emergency: via Accident and Emergency (A&E) services, including the casualty department of the provider 22 = Emergency: via general practitioner (GP) 23 = Emergency: via Bed Bureau, including the Central Bureau 24 = Emergency: via consultant out-patient clinic 28 = Emergency: other means, including patients who arrive via the A&E department of another health care provider (4) Number of Emergency admissions Where the number of admissions is more than one, this includes records with more than five and more than 10 admissions etc. Source: Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), Health and Social Care Information Centre

General Practitioners

Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps he is taking to improve patient trust in GP decision-making.

Simon Burns: Patient surveys consistently show that patients see general practitioners (GPs) as the most trusted profession in the national health service with some 94% of patients responding to the GP patient survey saying they have trust and confidence in their GP. That is one reason why GPs are best placed to understand and be responsible for meeting the needs of patients.

NHS Foundation Trusts: North East

Hugh Bayley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health 
	(1)  on what date he anticipates the merger of York NHS Foundation Trust and Scarborough NHS Trust; what accumulated surplus or deficit he anticipates each trust will have immediately prior to merger; and what surplus or deficit will be written off for each trust as a consequence of merger;
	(2)  what (a) annual surplus of deficit on current expenditure and (b) accumulated deficit was recorded by (i) York NHS Foundation Trust and (ii) Scarborough NHS Trust at the end of the (A) 2009-10 and (B) 2010-11 financial years; and what estimate he has made of the corresponding figures for each trust at the end of the 2011-12 financial year.

Simon Burns: The completion of the acquisition of Scarborough and North East Yorkshire Hospitals by York Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation trust is expected for 1 July 2012 subject to the necessary approvals from Ministers and the independent regulator of foundation trusts, Monitor.
	Scarborough NHS Trust reported a surplus of £1.91 million in their 2009-10 final accounts and a surplus of £1.87 million in their 2010-11 final accounts. The trust is forecasting a surplus of £1.88 million at quarter two of 2011-12. At the point of the acquisition, it is anticipated that Scarborough and North East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust will be in a break-even position. As a NHS foundation trust, York Teaching Hospitals report their financial position to Monitor and in their published annual report, which is laid before Parliament. No financial surplus or deficit will be “written off” as a consequence of the acquisition.

NHS: Interpreters

Andy Slaughter: To ask the Secretary of State for Health 
	(1)  how many organisations tendered for each NHS trust's interpretation contract awarded to Applied Language Solutions; which organisations were shortlisted; what the monetary value of their tenders was; what criteria were used to award contracts; and whether any other organisations were invited to submit a final tender;
	(2)  if he will place in the Library a copy of each document relating to the assessment of Applied Language Solutions' applications for NHS trusts' interpretation contracts.

Paul Burstow: This information is not held centrally. The provision of interpretation and translation services by NHS bodies is a matter for local determination.

Nurses: Manpower

Catherine McKinnell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many full-time equivalent multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's specialist nurses there were by primary care trust in the last five years for which figures are available.

Paul Burstow: Information on the number of full-time equivalent multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's specialist nurses is not collected centrally.
	It is the responsibility of primary care trusts to ensure they have sufficient staff available to meet the needs of their local population.

Pharmacy

Huw Irranca-Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Health 
	(1)  what assessment he has made of the time taken to supply prescription medications to local pharmacies;
	(2)  what estimate he has made of the number of patients affected by the time taken in the supply of medicine to local pharmacies;
	(3)  what assessment he has made of the parallel exportation of medicines from the UK market to other European markets;
	(4)  what assessment he has made of the (a) time and (b) money spent by local pharmacists in acquiring emergency supplies of medicines from wholesalers, manufacturers and other pharmacists for patients;
	(5)  what assessment he has made of the potential effect of a shortage of raw materials on the supply of prescription medicines to local pharmacies;
	(6)  if he will estimate the cost to the NHS of pharmacists spending between one and three hours per week securing medications for their customers' prescriptions.

Simon Burns: Pharmacies make their own commercial arrangements with suppliers and therefore the information is not centrally held.
	Medicines supply is a large and complex market and while the majority of medicines are supplied to patients in an appropriate time scale, we are aware that pharmacies are experiencing difficulties in obtaining some medicines which in turn causes delay in getting these medicines to patients. The Department continues to work collaboratively with the medicines supply chain stakeholders (including those representing retail pharmacists) to better understand and mitigate the impact of supply difficulties so that patients receive the medicines they need promptly.

Referral Management System: Coventry

Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will assess the effectiveness of the Referral Management System in Coventry.

Simon Burns: It is for the local national health service to assess the effectiveness of the Referral Management System in Coventry.

Sunbeds: Safety

Pauline Latham: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans he has to bring forward legislative proposals to require clear and accurate health information to be provided at sunbed salons in England.

Anne Milton: The Sunbeds (Regulation) Act 2010 contains powers for further regulation including the provision for those carrying out sunbed businesses to provide and display prescribed health information to persons who are using or may seek to use a sunbed.
	The powers to enact further regulations have not been used and the Government are not planning to introduce any further regulations for England at the present time. We will keep the position under review.
	The Health and Safety Executive provides best practice guidance for sunbed businesses—‘Reducing health risks from the use of ultraviolet (UV) tanning equipment’—and a poster and leaflet with advice for operators and customers available at:
	www.hse.gov.uk/press/2009/e09038.htm
	The advice for customers includes information about the health risks associated with the use of tanning equipment.
	SunSmart, the national skin cancer prevention campaign, also provides information and advice about the risks to health of sunbeds at:
	www.sunsmart.org.uk/advice-and-prevention/sunbeds

JUSTICE

Departmental Air Travel

David Crausby: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice on what occasions he has taken flights within the UK on official business since August 2010; what class of travel he used; and who accompanied him on each such flight.

Kenneth Clarke: I have not taken any flights within the UK since August 2010.

Departmental ICT

John McDonnell: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what his policy is on an in-house bid for the Quantum information and communications technology contract; and whether his Department’s management board has considered making such a bid.

Kenneth Clarke: An internal bid for the recompetition of the Quantum contract was not considered by the Ministry of Justice as, like many Government Departments, the Ministry outsources the provision of ICT to the private sector. The Ministry does not have the in-house capability to deliver the services or infrastructure required to keep our prisons and NOMS HQ operating. A key driver of this project is to maintain business continuity for NOMS HQ/prisons, hence the need to outsource to a supplier with the capability and capacity to deliver.

Departmental Procurement

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice 
	(1)  what proportion of the total value of contracts issued or to be issued by his Department in 2011-12 have required successful organisations to put up a capital bond; and if he will make a statement;
	(2)  which contracts his Department has tendered or will tender in 2011-12 which require successful organisations to have a capital bond of more than £5 million; which contracts have not required such a bond; and if he will make a statement.

Kenneth Clarke: The Ministry of Justice has not issued any contracts where the successful organisation has been required to put up a capital bond.
	All contracts that have been tendered by the Department are available in the public domain on the Contracts Finder website at:
	http://www.contractsfinder.businesslink.gov.uk/
	This is updated on a daily basis.

Homicide: British Nationals Abroad

Priti Patel: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what discussions he has had with (a) EU institutions and (b) EU member states on support services and financial assistance available to bereaved families based in the UK of British nationals murdered in another EU member state.

Kenneth Clarke: The UK has opted into the proposed directive establishing minimum standards on the rights, support and protection of victims of crime. I have had discussions with other member states at Justice and Home Affairs Council meetings held since the proposal was published in May 2011. On 14 December 2011, I attended the Justice and Home Affairs Council and agreed with other member states a draft text of the proposed directive. Victims, including bereaved families based in the UK of British nationals murdered in another EU member state, will be afforded minimum rights, support and protection by the directive similar to that already provided to victims of crime committed in the UK.

Offences Against Children

Tessa Munt: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many people have been (a) prosecuted for and (b) convicted of common assault against a child in each of the last seven years; and in how many cases the reasonable punishment defence was used.

Crispin Blunt: The Ministry of Justice Court Proceedings Database holds information on offences where proceedings have been brought but not all the circumstances of each case. Information held centrally on common assault proceedings does not identify the victim's age or whether the reasonable punishment defence was pleaded.

Prisons: Discipline

Priti Patel: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice if he will bring forward proposals to amend legislation relating to freedom of information and data protection laws to enable (a) the public and (b) victims of crime to obtain the disciplinary records of offenders in custody.

Kenneth Clarke: The Government do not have plans to amend the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) or the Data Protection Act at this time beyond measures already contained in the Protection of Freedoms Bill. The Justice Select Committee is currently undertaking post legislative scrutiny of the FOIA and any further amendment should take place in the context of that process. The Government are committed to improving services for victims of crime. On 30 January the Government launched a consultation with far-reaching proposals for improving the support provided to victims and witnesses.

Prisons: Mental Health Services

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what use his Department has made of mindfulness-based therapy techniques in (a) improving well-being and (b) reducing recidivism in the prison population.

Crispin Blunt: The information requested is as follows:
	(a) There are a number of interventions that seek to improve well-being as part of their overall aim. However, our data systems do not allow for identification of the techniques on which those interventions are based.
	(b) Mindfulness-based therapy techniques is a term that could cover a range of therapeutic approaches. It is an emerging area of psychological therapy that as yet, does not have a large evidence base in the forensic field.
	We have a number of accredited interventions accredited by the Correctional Services Accreditation Panel and the goal of these programmes is to reduce reoffending. However, some programmes use mindfulness—or techniques influenced by mindfulness—in their approach.
	For example, in the violence genre of accredited programmes, the Building Better Relationships (BBR) intimate partner violence programme uses techniques that draw on, and are influenced by mindfulness, to help participants develop reflective thinking and self-monitoring, recognise and tolerate problematic emotions and address rumination and hostile and resentful thinking.
	Mindfulness training is a key component of the CARE (Choices Actions Relationships and Emotions) programme, to help participants engage in treatment sessions, develop self-awareness and cope more effectively with their emotions.
	In SCP (Self Change programme), mindfulness does not play such an integral role, but some therapeutic techniques are inspired by mindfulness training and are used as an optional complementary approach, to strengthen participants' ability to develop their reflective thinking and self-monitoring skills.
	It is also used in a similar way in the RESOLVE programme, where mindfulness approaches are used to compliment more traditional cognitive behavioural therapy. These techniques help participants develop reflective thinking and self-monitoring, notice and tolerate emotions and notice when they begin to ruminate and take steps to avoid hostile rumination and angry and resentful thinking.
	Cognitive and motivational programmes and substance misuse interventions encourage participants to consider their relationships, their emotions, values and rules and how they impact on factors such as substance use and offending. Participants are supported in exploring how they can challenge their thinking where this does not support a pro social life style and practice the appropriate skills and tools both inside and out of sessions. It is fair to say that while participants are encouraged to be ‘mindful’, this does not incorporate the techniques of mindfulness based therapy.
	Where the techniques are not employed then the future development of all programmes will take into account any relevant evidence based practice. Decisions about the inclusion of such methods will be informed by the ongoing analysis of the relevant literature.

EDUCATION

Children: Modelling

Jo Swinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what assessment he has made of the premature sexualisation of child models in advertising and the fashion industry; and if he will make a statement.

Tim Loughton: holding answer 20 February 2012
	In December 2010 the Government asked Reg Bailey, chief executive of the Mother's Union, to carry out an independent review of the commercialisation and sexualisation of childhood. His report, ‘Letting Children be Children’, was published in June 2011 and is available on the Department for Education's website:
	https://www.education.gov.uk/publications/standard/publicationDetail/Page1/CM%208078
	Mr Bailey's recommendations include measures to bring the sexualised images used in public places and on television, the internet, music videos, magazines, newspapers and other places more into line with what parents find acceptable and to make public spaces more family-friendly.
	We plan to consult later this spring on proposals to reform and modernise the legislation governing the employment of children as actors and models.

Children: Social Services

Iain Wright: To ask the Secretary of State for Education if he will bring forward an additional special grant for local authorities for the funding of looked-after children and children's social services.

Sarah Teather: Looked after children and children's social care services are funded by local authorities from a combination of council tax and formula grant, which is a grant paid by the Department for Communities and Local Government. The Government have no plans to introduce an additional grant. It is for councils to manage pressures in these areas from within their overall budget.

English Language: Peterborough

Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education how many pupils in Peterborough constituency did not achieve English skills at (a) Level 1 and (b) Level 2 in each year since 2001; and if he will make a statement.

Nick Gibb: The information requested for the years. 2005/06 onwards can be found in the following table. Figures for earlier years can be provided only at a disproportionate cost.
	
		
			 Number and percentage of pupils (1,2,3)  not achieving level 1 (4)  or level 2 (5)  in English (functional English) in Peterborough constituency (6) , east of England region (7)  and England (8) . Years: 2005/06 to 2009/10 
			   Number of eligible pupils Number of pupils not achieving level 1 Percentage of pupils not achieving level 1 Number of pupils not achieving level 2 Percentage of pupils not achieving level 2 
			 2005/06 Peterborough 1.356 142 10.5 600 44.2 
			  East of England 65,367 3,556 5.4 25,836 39.5 
			  England 592,485 37,185 6.3 247,638 41.8 
			 2006/07 Peterborough 1,424 151 10.6 649 45.6 
			  East of England 66,073 3,499 5.3 25,210 36.2 
			  England 598,767 33,775 5.6 236,129 39.4 
			 2007/08 Peterborough 1,341 127 9.5 609 45.4 
			  East of England 66,294 3,271 4.9 23,854 36.0 
			  England 595,806 29,738 5.0 217,603 36.5 
			 2008/09 Peterborough 1,409 146 10.4 612 43.4 
			  East of England 65,171 2,755 4.2 22,321 34.2 
			  England 576,420 24,673 4.3 198,334 34.4 
			 2009/10 Peterborough 1,366 97 7.1 578 42.3 
			  East of England 65,693 2,433 3:7 19,803 30.1 
			  England 575,970 20,643 3.6 174,706 30.3 
			 (1) Figures do not include pupils recently arrived from overseas. (2) Figures include all maintained schools (including CTCs and academies). (3) Pupils at the end of key stage 4 in each academic year. (4) GCSE at grades A*-G. Valid equivalents, along with GCSEs are iGCSEs (2009/10 only), functional skills, key skills and basic skills at level 1. (5) GCSE at grades A*-C Valid equivalents, along with GCSEs are iGCSEs (2009/10 only), functional skills, key skills and basic skills at level 2. (6) Parliamentary constituency figures are based on the postcode of the school. (7) Regional figures are based on the region of the local authority maintaining the school. (8) England figures are the sum of all local authority figures. Source: National Pupil Database

Females: Violence

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what mechanisms his Department has put in place to contact schools directly to inform them of inter-ministerial work on addressing violence against women and girls; by what direct mechanisms his Department inform schools about the Home Office teen abuse campaign work; and via what mechanisms his Department is directly contacting people workingwith young people in (a) care settings, (b) youth settings and (c) pupil referral units on addressing violence against women and girls; and if he will make a statement.

Tim Loughton: The Department is highlighting the Home Office teen abuse campaign work via Twitter and Facebook as we often do with cross-governmental campaigns of interest to our followers. However the Department has also made a commitment to reduce burdens on schools, including pupil referral units. As a result we no longer routinely contact them directly. For care settings we have regular newsletters for the children's homes sector, Children in Care Councils and Independent Reviewing Officers providing an opportunity to inform them about addressing violence against women and girls. For youth settings, we are in close contact with organisations that work directly with young people. As the Minister responsible for Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG), I regularly communicate directly with children and young people through, for example, regular meetings with both looked after children and care leavers.

Young People: Unemployment

Alex Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what estimate he has made of the proportion of 16 to 18-year-olds not in education, employment and training who have the necessary skills to start an apprenticeship; and if he will make a statement.

John Hayes: There are no common or mandatory entry requirements for apprenticeships. Entry requirements are determined by the issuing authority and are set out in each apprenticeships framework. As they vary depending on the occupational role, level and industry sector, assessment of the required skills is made on an individual basis.
	There is strong demand for apprenticeships and employers will rightly take the best candidate for their vacancy. To help young people develop wider employability skills and give them the chance to demonstrate to prospective employers their commitment to work and study to the standards required to complete an apprenticeship, the Government introduced Access to Apprenticeships. This new pathway complements wider programmes of support set out in the ‘Building Engagement, Building Futures: Our Strategy to Maximise the Participation of 16-24 Year Olds in Education, Training and Work’ which was published in December 2011.

FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH AFFAIRS

Syria

Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether the UK is providing support to people in Syria protesting against the Syrian Government.

Alistair Burt: The Department for International Development is providing support to humanitarian agencies operating in Syria who are working to address the needs of tens of thousands of civilians affected by the ongoing violence.
	£2 million of additional UK funding was announced by the Prime Minister at the UK/France summit on 17 February. This will help contribute towards providing life saving assistance, including emergency medical services and supplies; basic food rations sufficient for over 20,000 people; essential household items for up to 5,500 people; and access to safe drinking water for over 30,000 people through the restoration of damaged water and sanitation infrastructure.

Syria

Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what recent assessment he has made of the political situation in Syria.

Alistair Burt: The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for Richmond (Yorks) (Mr Hague), has repeatedly made clear his condemnation of the Syrian regime's use of violence and repression against its own people. President Assad and the Syrian regime must heed the call of the international community and allow a peaceful political transition to a more open political system. President Assad and those around him should be under no doubt that we will continue to support the Syrian people in their aspiration for a peaceful political transition in Syria.
	On 17 February the UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to back the Arab League's plan for a Syrian-led solution to the crisis. The resolution, which explicitly endorsed the Arab League Plan of 2 November as well as its decisions on 22 January and 12 February, was co-sponsored by 72 countries and supported by 137 members of the Assembly. It sent a clear signal of the international community's condemnation of the Syrian regime's actions and intention to hold to account those responsible for the ongoing atrocities. The message was unambiguous: the violence must stop immediately.

Syria

Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether he has any plans to visit Syria.

Alistair Burt: Neither the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for Richmond (Yorks) (Mr Hague), nor I have any current plans to visit Syria.

Syria

Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether he has had any discussions with his counterpart in Syria on ending the violence in that country; and if he will make a statement.

Alistair Burt: The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for Richmond (Yorks) (Mr Hague), last discussed the situation in Syria with his counterpart, Syrian Foreign Minister Muallem on 27 April 2011. The Secretary of State called for an end to violence and for the Syrians to respond to the legitimate grievances of the Syrian people. The Secretary of State continues to make clear publically, most recently in a statement on 17 February 2012, that the violence in Syria must stop immediately.
	FCO officials regularly raise the need for the violence to stop with the Syrian authorities in Damascus and with the Syrian ambassador in London.

Syria

Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what sanctions he has placed on Syria.

Alistair Burt: The British Government has led the way in introducing European Union measures against the Syrian regime, including against President Assad since May 2011. In 11 rounds of sanctions, the latest on 23 January, the EU has subjected a total of 108 individuals and 38 entities to asset freezes and travel bans. These are targeted against those supporting, or benefitting from, the regime, and those associated with them.
	Other EU measures against Syria include: an arms embargo; a ban on the import of Syrian oil into the EU and any new investment in the Syria oil industry; a ban on EU investment/construction of new power stations in Syria and of member states offering long term, public or private, financial support for trade; and an embargo on exports of Syrian banknotes and coinage from the EU to the Central Bank of Syria.
	With France and Germany, we are pushing for a further round of tough EU sanctions on Syria this month, which is aimed at increasing the economic and financial pressure on the Assad regime.
	EU sanctions are designed to put pressure on President Assad and those around him to reject the use of violence and embrace genuine reform.

CABINET OFFICE

Deaths: Alcoholic Drinks

Diane Abbott: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office how many 
	(1)  alcohol-related deaths there were in (a) 2010 and (b) 2011 in each (i) parliamentary constituency and (ii) local authority area;
	(2)  alcohol-related deaths of people under the age of 18 years there were in (a) 2010 and (b) 2011 in each (i) parliamentary constituency and (ii) local authority area.

Nick Hurd: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.
	Letter from Stephen Penneck, dated February 2012
	As Director General for the Office for National Statistics, I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Questions asking:
	1. How many alcohol-related deaths there were in (a) 2010 and (b) 2011 in each (i) parliamentary constituency and (ii) local authority area.
	2. How many alcohol-related deaths of people under the age of 18 years there were in (a) 2010 and (b) 2011 in each (i) parliamentary constituency and (ii) local authority area.
	Alcohol-related deaths are reported consistently across the United Kingdom using an agreed National Statistics definition. Tables 1 and 2 provide the number of deaths with an alcohol-related underlying cause in the United Kingdom for each parliamentary constituency and local authority area, respectively, for 2010 (the latest year available). The National Statistics definition of alcohol-related deaths only includes those causes regarded as being most directly due to alcohol consumption, as shown in Box 1 below.
	There were two deaths with an alcohol-related underlying cause in persons aged under 18 years in the United Kingdom in 2010. Due to the small number of deaths, we are not able to provide the names of the parliamentary constituencies or local authorities in which these persons were resident.
	A copy of Tables 1 and 2 has been placed in the House of Commons Library.
	Alcohol-related death figures for the UK, England and Wales, and Regions in England, for 1991 to 2010 are available on the ONS website at the following link:
	www.ons.gov.uk/ons/publications/all-releases.html?definition=tcm%3A77-29395
	More detailed figures for Scotland are available from National Records of Scotland here:
	www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/statistics/theme/vital-events/deaths/alcohol-related/tables.html
	Figures for Northern Ireland are published by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency and are available here:
	www.nisra.gov.uk/archive/demography/publications/alcohol_deaths/Alcohol_Tables_10.xls
	
		
			 Box 1: National Statistics definition of alcohol-related deaths 
			  International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10) codes 
			 F10 Mental and behavioural disorders due to use of alcohol 
			 G31.2 Degeneration of nervous system due to alcohol 
			 G62.1 Alcoholic polyneuropathy 
			 I42.6 Alcoholic cardiomyopathy 
			 K29.2 Alcoholic gastritis 
			 K70 Alcoholic liver disease 
			 K73 Chronic hepatitis, not elsewhere classified 
			 K74 Fibrosis and cirrhosis of liver (Excluding K74.3-K74.5—Biliary cirrhosis) 
			 K86.0 Alcohol induced chronic pancreatitis 
			 X45 Accidental poisoning by and exposure to alcohol 
			 X65 Intentional self-poisoning by and exposure to alcohol 
			 Y15 Poisoning by and exposure to alcohol, undetermined intent

Public Sector: Redundancy

Jim Cunningham: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office 
	(1)  what recent discussions he has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the projected number of redundancies in the public sector to 2016-17;
	(2)  what recent discussions he has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on pay in the civil service up to 2014-15.

Francis Maude: As has been the case under successive Administrations, the Government do not release details of internal meetings, so as not to impede Ministers' ability to hold free and frank discussions on matters of policy.

DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER

Departmental Air Travel

David Crausby: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister on what occasions he has taken flights within the UK on official business since August 2010; what class of travel he used; and who accompanied him on each such flight.

Nicholas Clegg: I, and any officials accompanying me on official business, travel making the most efficient and cost-effective arrangements. My travel arrangements are in accordance with the arrangements for official travel as set out in the Ministerial Code.

DEFENCE

Afghanistan: Armoured Fighting Vehicles

Angus Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many armoured fighting vehicles by type will be returned to the UK from Afghanistan; and what the cost to the public purse will be.

Nick Harvey: No decision has yet been taken as to whether those armoured fighting vehicles (including medium and heavy protected patrol vehicles and tactical support vehicles such as Mastiff, Husky, Ridgback, Wolfhound, Warthog and Buffalo) procured under the urgent operational requirements process (to meet specific threats in Afghanistan) will be retained or disposed of. If retained, no decision has yet been taken on type or number of vehicles (with the detailed planning the subject of future departmental annual planning rounds) and, if to be disposed of, the method of the disposal (which can include sales and gifting to the host nation) is unknown at this time. The cost to the public purse cannot be estimated until these decisions are taken.
	With regards to those armoured fighting vehicles deployed in Afghanistan from the Army’s core equipment fleet (including the Warrior Armoured Infantry Fighting Vehicle, Trojan Armoured Engineer Vehicle, Challenger Armoured Repair and Recovery Vehicle, Combat Vehicle Reconnaissance (Tracked) and the Multiple Launch Rocket System), these vehicles will be returned to the UK although the cost of returning them and their subsequent refurbishment is still to be determined.

Afghanistan: Medals

Bob Russell: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what estimate he has made of the number of personnel who have served on deployments to Afghanistan who will not qualify for the diamond jubilee medal.

Andrew Robathan: holding answer 20 February 2012
	I have made no such assessment. Service personnel who deployed to Afghanistan are eligible to receive the operational service medal. The Queen’s diamond jubilee medal is a commemorative medal and is awarded to all members of the armed forces who have served for five years or more and were in service on 6 February 2012, regardless of whether they have undertaken an operational deployment.

Armed Forces: Dismissal

Dan Byles: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many (a) officers and (b) soldiers were discharged as being temperamentally unsuited to service life from each of three single services in each of the last 10 years.

Andrew Robathan: The information is not held in the format requested and could be provided only at a disproportionate cost.
	The term “temperamentally unsuited to service life” is applied to those service personnel who, despite considerable efforts to resolve difficulties, cannot adapt to the basic but unique demands of service life, such as toleration of discipline, both self and military, close quarter living, and separation from family. Personnel who are judged by a psychiatrist to be temperamentally unsuited will be administratively discharged.
	Administrative discharge from the armed forces can take place for a wide variety of reasons, and it is not possible to determine the number of officers and soldiers who were discharged as being temperamentally unsuited without undertaking a manual review of all administrative discharge records for the last 10 years.

Armed Forces: Mental Health Services

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what assessment he has made of the use of mindfulness-based techniques in the US for returning veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Andrew Robathan: Mindfulness-based cognitive techniques have a range of forms and applications, including educational (in developing effective thinking processes) and medical (in treating some mental health conditions). Specifically, mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) is recognised by the UK National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) as effective for the treatment of mental health disorders such as recurrent depression.
	In assessing the possible effectiveness of MBCT for UK military patients, we would certainly take into account the experience of other nations. In this context, in 2011, a new collaborative UK/US taskforce was set up to share best medical and rehabilitation practice, with four working groups being established to take this work forward. The second of these has a specific focus on mental health care issues, and comparison between the different techniques employed by the two countries will form an important part of its work.

Armed Forces: Training

Cathy Jamieson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence pursuant to the answer of 7 November 2011, Official Report, column 79W, on armed forces: young people, if he will consider reviewing the guidelines governing the use of live weapons during phase one and phase two training.

Andrew Robathan: holding answer 20 February 2012
	We are confident that the current policy on live weapons training and the safeguards in place to protect our personnel are robust and have no plans to review them. While it is clear that there are risks associated with the use of weapons in training, the handling and understanding of each individual of the responsibilities for weapon security and safety are vital elements of initial training.

Departmental Manpower

Alun Cairns: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many civil servants his Department employed in (a) May 2005, (b) May 2010 and (c) December 2010.

Andrew Robathan: holding answer 20 January 2012
	The information requested is as follows:
	
		
			 Full-time equivalent 
			  Number of civil servants 
			 May 2005 108,300 
			 May 2010 85,640 
			 December 2010 83,770 
			 Notes: 1. All totals have been rounded to the nearest 10 and show full-time equivalents. 2. Total includes personnel in MOD main top level budgets, trading funds, Royal Fleet Auxiliary and locally engaged civilians. 3. LEC data is updated quarterly. May 2005 total includes LEC numbers at April 2005. May 2010 total includes LEC numbers at April 2010. December 2010 total includes LEC numbers at October 2010. Source: DASA (Quad Service) 
		
	
	The Government have announced a reduction of about 32,000 full-time equivalent civilian posts by 2020. This planned reduction is based on the April 2010 total of 85,850 full-time equivalent employees and equates to some 38% of the civilian workforce.

Gurkhas: Pensions

Jackie Doyle-Price: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many former Gurkha soldiers are not in receipt of an army pension.

Andrew Robathan: The Ministry of Defence does not hold the current details of former Gurkhas, or any other soldiers, who do not have an Army pension. Serving Gurkhas are now part of the Armed Forces Pension Scheme and will qualify for pensions in the same way as all other armed forces personnel.

Ministry of Defence Police: Finance

Gemma Doyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what representations he has received on his decision to approve the PR11 options which resulted in a reduction in the budget of the Ministry of Defence Police; and what assessment he has made of these representations.

Andrew Robathan: As part of the consultation process on the PR11 options that relate to the Ministry of Defence Police, I have met personally with the chairman of the Defence Police Federation on a number of occasions to discuss changes to the Department's future requirement for civil policing services and capabilities. The views of the Defence Police Federation will be taken into account during the implementation of these changes.

Ministry of Defence Police: Finance

Gemma Doyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what estimate he has made of the effect on the total number of officers of the proposal to reduce the Ministry of Defence police budget by up to 50 per cent.

Andrew Robathan: Possible options to adjust our future requirement for Ministry of Defence police (MOD) services and capabilities are still being considered. Final decisions have not yet been taken about the future budget of the MOD police.

Ministry of Defence Police: Manpower

Gemma Doyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence when his Department expects to reach a final decision on the future number of Ministry of Defence police officers at each Ministry of Defence site.

Andrew Robathan: The final decision on the number of Ministry of Defence (MOD) police officers at each site will be made after consultation with the relevant staff associations about the implementation of changes to our future requirement for MOD police services and capabilities. We expect this consultation to take place during 2012.

MOD Abbey Wood

Madeleine Moon: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many permissions have been applied for by individuals working at MOD Abbey Wood to move to work in the private defence sector in the last 18 months; and if he will make a statement.

Andrew Robathan: This information is not held in the format requested. I also refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 12 January 2012, Official Report, column 422W.

NATO

Angus Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what discussions he has had with his NATO counterparts on the pooling of maritime patrol aircraft.

Nick Harvey: The pooling and sharing of maritime patrol aircraft is one of a number of projects within NATO’s wider Smart Defence Initiative which was considered at the recent meeting of NATO Defence Ministers. The UK is not currently planning to participate in this project.

Nuclear Weapons: Security

Gemma Doyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence whether his Department is undertaking any review of arrangements for the security or protection of defence nuclear materials.

Peter Luff: Our nuclear security arrangements are kept under continual review and frequently tested. We do not comment on the detailed arrangements for the security or protection of defence nuclear materials.

RAF Staxton Wold

Anne McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence 
	(1)  what assessment he has made of the costs of the upgrade of the radar at Staxton Wold radar station; and who will meet the costs of the upgrade;
	(2)  what assessment he has made of the potential effect of any proposed wind farm developments on the operation of radar at Staxton Wold radar station; and if he will make a statement.

Peter Luff: Trials carried out in 2004 and 2005 concluded that wind turbines in line of sight to radars cause significant impact to military operations.
	All proposed wind turbine developments undergo detailed technical assessments. Any found to affect the radar at Staxton Wold would be objected to unless suitable mitigation measures were proposed by the developer.
	The cost of any mitigation falls to the developers. The MOD assessed and agreed to the proposal made by developers in 2011 to fund the replacement of the existing T102 Air Defence radar at Staxton Wold with a TPS77, which performs significantly better in the presence of wind farms.

Royal Army Medical Corps: Dismissal

Dan Byles: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many medical officers in the Royal Army Medical Corps were discharged as being temperamentally unsuited to service life in each of the last 10 years.

Andrew Robathan: The information is not held in the format requested and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
	The term "temperamentally unsuited to service life" is applied to those service personnel who, despite considerable efforts to resolve difficulties, cannot adapt to the basic but unique demands of service life, such as toleration of discipline, both self and military, close quarter living, and separation from family.
	Personnel who are judged by a psychiatrist to be temperamentally unsuited will be administratively discharged.
	Administrative discharge from the armed forces can take place for a wide variety of reasons, and it is not possible to determine the number of officers and soldiers in the Royal Army Medical Corps who were discharged as being temperamentally unsuited without undertaking a manual review of all administrative discharge records for the last 10 years.

Royal Army Medical Corps: Manpower

Dan Byles: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence 
	(1)  how many medical officers recruited into the Royal Army Medical Corps through the medical cadetship scheme left the armed forces before the end of their six years return of service in each of the last 10 years;
	(2)  what estimate he has made of the average length of service of medical officers in the Royal Army Medical Corps who were recruited through the medical cadetship scheme; and whether the average length of service of such medical officers has fallen or risen in the last five years.

Andrew Robathan: The information is not held in the format requested and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
	It is not possible to determine the length of service for officers who were recruited through the medical cadetship scheme without undertaking a manual review of individual records for the last 10 years.

COMMUNITIES AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Coastal Communities Fund

Jonathan Edwards: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what methodology his Department used to determine the amount of funding for each constituent part of the UK in the Coastal Communities Fund.

Grant Shapps: The amount of money made available to each country, or part of a country, under the new Fund has been set at 50% of the gross revenues raised by the Crown Estate's marine activities in that area. For 2012, the funding is based on the Crown Estate's marine revenues in 2010-11 and will be distributed to each country as follows:
	
		
			 £ million 
			 2010-11 Total Crown Estate marine revenues 50% of Crown Estate marine revenues 
			 England 36.4 18.2 
			    
			 Scotland   
			 Highlands and Islands 3.7 1.85 
			 Rest of Scotland 4.1 2.05 
			    
			 Wales 2.3 1.15 
			 N. Ireland 0.9 0.45 
			 Total 47.4 23.7 
		
	
	The amount of money made available in future years will continue to be linked to the marine revenues generated by the Crown Estate; the size of the fund in 2013-14 will be based on 2011-12 receipts and we will announce the funding available for 2013-14 later this year.

Housing Associations

Priti Patel: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what measures his Department has put in place to enable (a) local authorities and (b) tenants to hold housing associations to account.

Grant Shapps: As private providers of social housing, housing associations are regulated by the Social Housing Regulator against its standards framework.
	As part of our reform of social housing regulation, we want to see more scrutiny of performance and the best place for this to be done is at local level with social landlords challenged about performance and held to account by their tenants for the delivery of high quality, cost effective services.
	To deliver this, we have directed the Social Housing Regulator to issue a revised Tenant Involvement and Empowerment Standard that requires landlords to offer tenants opportunities to get involved in the scrutiny of landlords' performance, and to influence housing related policies and priorities. As part of the standard, on which the regulator is currently consulting, landlords must also support the formation and activities of tenant panels, and provide timely and relevant performance information to support scrutiny, including publishing an annual report to tenants.
	To further support this local scrutiny role, we are funding the National Community Resource Centre to deliver residential training for tenants wishing to set up tenant panels, and I am challenging the housing association sector to follow Government's lead in publishing details of expenditure of over £500, so that tenants can see how their rent is being spent.
	Additionally, through the Localism Act 2011 we are ensuring that social housing regulation is focused on the economic performance of the sector and emphasising the primacy of the landlord and tenant relationship. From April 2013, democratically elected local councillors, MPs and designated tenant panels will have a formal role as the first port of call for resolving complaints. By giving tenant panels and local representatives the power to resolve complaints at the local level this will provide speedy and effective redress where tenants receive a poor service.

Housing Benefit

Liam Byrne: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what recent representations he has received on the potential redundancy of local authority housing benefit staff upon implementation of universal credit.

Steve Webb: I have been asked to reply 
	on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions.
	My Department’s governance structure for universal credit allows for discussions with all key stakeholders, including senior local authority representatives. My officials continue to work with colleagues in local authorities to assess the impacts of introducing universal credit, including the implications for their existing housing benefit services. This includes deciding the appropriate action to take as we further develop the delivery design and migration strategy for universal credit.

Housing: Planning Permission

Neil Carmichael: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government with reference to his reforms of planning and housing targets, what assessment he has made of the level of additional autonomy given to councils in deciding the scale and nature of housing developments.

Greg Clark: Planning decisions need to be made by people who are democratically accountable and through genuine involvement of local people. That is why we intend to abolish the existing regional strategies outside London using powers contained in the Localism Act.
	Local plans will be examined by an independent inspector to assess whether they are sound. That will include whether they are justified and effective having regard to evidence of housing need, and if they have proper regard to national policy.
	Our Housing Strategy, published in November, sets out a package of reforms to help provide the homes needed for communities.

Mortgages: Housing Benefit

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what estimate he has made of the (a) number and (b) proportion of buy to let mortgage lenders who prohibit tenancies with housing benefit claimants in their lending terms and conditions; and if he will make a statement.

Andrew Stunell: We do not collect data on the number or proportion of buy to let mortgage lenders whose terms and conditions prohibit the letting of a property to a housing benefit claimant.
	Buy to let has provided choice and affordable accommodation in the private rented sector, and makes an important contribution to meeting people's housing needs. Many new landlords have entered the market over recent years using buy to let mortgages, which now account for around 10% of all new gross mortgage lending.

Mortgages: Housing Benefit

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government if he will hold discussions with buy to let lenders to urge them to (a) remove any restrictions on housing benefit tenants and (b) change restrictions on lengths of tenancy to encourage longer tenancies; and if he will make a statement.

Andrew Stunell: While we are aware that some buy to let mortgage lenders prohibit the letting of properties to housing benefit claimants and restrict the lengths of tenancies, these are commercial decisions with which the Government would not seek to intervene.
	We believe that the private rented sector is doing a good job in housing people on benefits, and currently estimate that around 30% of households in the sector are in receipt of housing benefit. We are working to ensure that the private rented sector continues to thrive and to offer affordability and choice to those seeking a home.

Non-domestic Rates: Parking

Alison McGovern: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what his policy is on the levying of full business rates on car parking spaces provided by retail businesses for customer use.

Bob Neill: Business rates are a tax on the rental value of non-domestic property. Any factor contributing to the value of non-domestic property is included in the assessment of the rateable value—this includes the availability of car parking either within the property or in the immediate locality
	In this context, supermarkets with car parking spaces are likely to have a higher rateable value than one without—and therefore will pay higher business rates.

Parish Councils

Eric Ollerenshaw: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what his policy is on making parish and town councils eligible for the (a) New Home Bonus and (b) Business Rate Retention Scheme.

Grant Shapps: Following consultation, the New Homes Bonus final scheme design setting out the mechanism for payment allocations was published on 17 February 2011. Parish and town councils are not eligible for New Homes Bonus and we currently have no plans to extend eligibility to these authorities. However, we expect receiving authorities (districts, counties and unitary authorities) to lead a discussion with communities, including parish and town councils about their priorities for investment.
	The Government set out their proposals for business rates retention on 19 December 2011. These proposals will enable major precepting authorities to retain at least a proportion of business rates. There are no plans to enable parish and town councils to be eligible for such funding. They will continue to be funded through a precept on the council tax.
	We have consulted on proposals to ensure that a meaningful proportion of the community infrastructure levy collected in an area is passed directly to parishes and town councils. Parishes would be free to spend their community infrastructure levy income on items which support development of their area. We are currently considering consultation responses.

Refuges: Females

Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what recent assessment his Department has made of the number of available places in women's refuges; and if he will make a statement.

Grant Shapps: holding answer 8 February 2012
	In November 2010, the Department published the research 'Meeting the needs of households at risk of domestic violence in England' which mapped and reviewed the role of accommodation and support services for households at risk of domestic violence in England.
	The research is available on the Department' s website at:
	http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/housing/domesticviolenceneeds
	and shows that there were 445 accommodation based services specifically designed for households at risk of domestic violence in 2009 (88% of which were women's refuges). 4,035 household places were recorded in over 418 schemes.
	The Government's approach to tackling domestic violence is set out in the “Call to End Violence Against Women and Girls Action Plan”.
	As part of this plan, the Home Office is providing £28 million of funding over the spending review period for specialist domestic and sexual violence services.
	The Ministry of Justice is also using proceeds from the victim surcharge, of up to £3.5 million a year, to give existing rape crisis centres stable, long-term funding, and to establish new centres where there are gaps in provision.
	Supporting People is the main funding source for the provision of refuge-based domestic violence services; the Department for Communities and Local Government has protected such funding and is providing £6.5 billion of funding for Supporting People over the spending review.

Rented Housing: Students

Stephen McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what regulations protect students from landlords who do not adequately maintain their properties.

Andrew Stunell: The current legislative framework contains robust safeguards for all private tenants, including students. Local authorities have extensive powers to take action against landlords letting poor quality accommodation. We are working closely with them to ensure that any barriers to them using those powers are lifted.
	Local authorities have extensive powers under the Housing Act 2004 to help improve the management and condition of all privately rented properties. In addition to the mandatory licensing of certain high risk Houses in Multiple Occupation, local authorities have the discretion to extend licensing to smaller types of such houses without having to first seek approval from this Department.
	Local authorities also have powers to assess the risks and hazards in privately rented properties using the Housing Health and Safety Rating System. If a property is found to contain serious hazards, the local authority has a duty to take the most appropriate action. This system provides an important safety net, ensuring that homes are safe.

HOME DEPARTMENT

Alcoholic Drinks: Scotland

Cathy Jamieson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the answer of 10 January 2012, Official Report, column 107W, on alcoholic drinks: Scotland, what discussions she has had with Scottish Ministers on the pricing of alcohol and its effect on health.

James Brokenshire: holding answer 20 February 2012
	Home Office Ministers have not held discussions with Scottish Ministers on the pricing of alcohol and its impact on health.
	Home Office officials have held discussions with the Scottish Government and the Scotland Office regarding current policy issues.

Cot Deaths

Iain Wright: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department 
	(1)  what assessment she has made of the number of police forces that have implemented the recommendations of the 2004 Kennedy Report into sudden unexpected death in infancy;
	(2)  if she will bring forward primary legislative proposals to implement the recommendations of the 2004 Kennedy Report into sudden unexpected death in infancy.

Nick Herbert: h olding answer 20 February 2012
	The Kennedy Report does not call for the introduction of primary legislation and I have no plans to legislate in this area.
	Implementation of the Kennedy Report recommendations is a matter for individual police forces.

Human Trafficking: Arrests

Fiona Mactaggart: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many arrests were made as a result of police operations against human trafficking in each year since 2004.

Damian Green: Data on the number of arrests as a result of police operations against human trafficking are not collected centrally. Information about arrests is collected by offence category rather than individual offence.

Members: Correspondence

Graham Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when the Minister for Policing and Criminal Justice plans to respond to the letter of 7 December 2011 from the hon. Member for Weaver Vale on behalf of Mr Marc Sutton.

Damian Green: I replied to my hon. Friend on 21 February 2012.

Morton Hall Immigration Removal Centre

Priti Patel: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many detainees at Morton Hall Immigration Removal Centre have been (a) investigated by the police, (b) given a police caution, (c) charged by the police with committing a criminal offence, (d) prosecuted by the Crown Prosecution Service and (e) convicted of a criminal offence in relation to suspected criminal offences committed by detainees.

Damian Green: The number of detainees held at Morton Hall on 30 September 2011, the latest date for which published data is available, was 321. Of these, 100 had been convicted of a criminal offence. The UK Border Agency does not routinely hold information on whether or not individuals have been investigated by the police, given a police caution or charged by the police with committing a criminal offence. Information on individuals prosecuted by the Crown Prosecution Service is not recorded centrally and would require examination of individual records at disproportionate cost.

Police: Olympic Games 2012

David Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether the (a) police and (b) other security personnel of any nation other than the UK will be allowed to carry weapons in the UK during the London 2012 Olympics.

Nick Herbert: The Government remains committed to delivering a safe and secure Olympic games in 2012, and lead responsibility for this rests with the police who have substantial experience of dealing with public order and security at major events.
	The rules governing the presence of foreign security and protection teams at the games are the same as at any time. Requests to carry weapons are referred to the police and Home Office for consideration.

Police: Vehicles

Iain Wright: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if she will estimate the number of replacement (a) general fleet and (b) patrol cars by police force that were (i) UK-built and (ii) foreign-built in the last 12 months for which figures are available.

Nick Herbert: holding answer 20 February 2012
	Records of replacement police cars that were, (i) UK-built and (ii) foreign-built in the last 12 months are not held centrally.

Speed Limits: Cameras

Greg Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the answer of 24 January 2012, Official Report, column 149W, on speed limits: cameras, what testing is done on speed cameras during the type approval process to test their reliability through deeply tinted windows.

Nick Herbert: Type approval testing for speed measuring devices does not include tests on their use through glass. All speed measuring devices using laser or radar can be used through glass, including tinted glass, and any measurement they take will be accurate.

Vetting

Shaun Woodward: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many records checks the Criminal Records Bureau has processed for people living in (a) St Helens South and Whiston constituency, (b) Merseyside and (c) England in each of the last five years; and how many such checks required the applicant to attend fingerprinting to prove their identity.

Lynne Featherstone: This information is not held in the format requested. In the last five years, the Criminal Records Bureau has processed over 19 million certificates. Of these, 24,136 fingerprint comparisons have been conducted. These details are broken down in the table for each of the last five years from April 2007 to present.
	
		
			 Calendar year Total issued Enhanced Standard Fingerprints provided 
			 2007 3,353,101 3,050,201 302,900 4,522 
			 2008 3,701,293 3,343,025 358,268 5,180 
			 2009 4,198,256 3,848,820 349,436 4,626 
			 2010 4,307,690 4,118,568 189,122 6,354 
			 2011 4,133,408 3,895,248 238,160 3,454 
			 Total 19,693,748 18,255,862 1,437,886 24,136

TREASURY

Arms Trade

Jim Murphy: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer which representatives from his Department have attended each of the UN Preparatory Committee meetings for the International Arms Trade Treaty; and which representatives from his Department will attend the meeting in February 2012.

Danny Alexander: Neither I nor any of my officials have attended, or currently plan to attend, any UN Preparatory Committee meetings for the International Arms Trade Treaty, as this is a matter for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the Department for Business Innovation and Skills and the Ministry of Defence.

Child Benefit

Jim Fitzpatrick: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many households in (a) Poplar and Limehouse constituency, (b) Tower Hamlets and (c) the UK are in receipt of child benefit allowance for (i) one child, (ii) two, (iii) three, (iv) four, (v) five or (vi) six children; and what proportion of household income such allowances represent.

David Gauke: The following table has the requested information:
	
		
			  Number of families by number of children in family 
			 Area 1 2 3 4 5 6 
			 Poplar and Limehouse (1)6,340 (1)4,275 (1)2,355 1,235 395 145 
			 Tower Hamlets (1)11,900 (1)8,220 (1)4,575 2,320 785 265 
			 UK (1)3,671,115 (1)2,942,985 (1)906,310 236,350 58,885 17,410 
			 (1 )These figures are available from the 2010 National Statistics: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/stats/child_benefit/chb-geog-aug10.xls 
		
	
	These figures were compiled using August 2010 National Statistics dataset.
	Information on the proportion of household income child benefit represents is not available.

Child Benefit

Jonathan Edwards: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate he has made of the potential cost to the Exchequer of lost revenue arising from tax planning following the withdrawal of child benefit from higher rate income taxpayers.

David Gauke: This information can be found on page 14 of the Spending Review 2010 Scorecard available at:
	http://cdn.hm-treasury.gov.uk/sr2010_policycostings.pdf
	The relevant paragraph is copied here for reference:
	“The costing includes assumptions for two behavioural responses: for the first full year 2013-14 these have an effect of approximately £280 million per year to allow for possible tax planning and approximately £60 million per year for possible non-compliance that may not be detected by compliance checks that apply.”

Crown Estate Commissioners

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer in which London boroughs the Crown Estate owns (a) land, (b) property and (c) both land and property; and what information his Department holds on each of these assets.

Chloe Smith: The following table shows the London property held by the Crown Estate, as at 31 December 2011. The Crown Estate does not distinguish between land and property within its urban estate, nor between developed and undeveloped land.
	
		
			 Schedule of the Crown Estate’s properties rights and interests, December, 2011 
			    Classification and area ( m (2) ) (1) 
			 County/unitary authority London borough Estate description Office Retail Other (2) Residential Industrial 
			 England        
			 Central London City of Westminster St James’s (including: Haymarket, Lower Regent Street and Pall Mall) 281,500 41,500 30,500 14,000 — 
			  Kensington and Chelsea Kensington Palace Gardens and Palace Green — — — 991,000 — 
			  City of Westminster Millbank 18,500 — — — — 
			  Camden New Oxford Street 16,000 — — — — 
			  City of Westminster Merchant Square Paddington 4,500 — — — — 
			  City of Westminster Park Lane 2,000 3,000 2,000 — — 
			  City of Westminster Regent’s Park 19,500 500 30,500 TBC 500 
			  City of Westminster Regent Street 108,500 208,500 28,000 5,000 — 
			  Lambeth Stamford Street — — — 42,000 — 
			  City of Westminster Trafalgar Square and the Strand 6,000 1,500 13,000 — — 
			  City of Westminster Whitehall and Victoria 47,000 18,000 — — — 
			         
			 Greater London Lewisham/ Greenwich Blackheath and Eltham 1,000 2,500 9,500 (3)— — 
			  Sutton Carlsberg, Marlow Way, Croydon — — — — 7,500 
			  Richmond upon Thames Hampton — 500 500 — — 
		
	
	
		
			  Hounslow Victory Business Centre, Isleworth — — — — 4,000 
			  Richmond upon Thames Richmond and Sudbrook 3,000 — 10,000 — 1,000 
			  Merton Weir Road Industrial Estate, Wimbledon — — — — 10,000 
			 (1) Areas have been rounded to the nearest 500m(2). (2) Properties which cannot be classified as being used as office, retail or industrial space. The types of ‘other’ usage includes: clubs, hotels, educational and medical centres car parks, leisure facilities, and palaces (for example, the Palace of Richmond). (3) These estates contain some residential properties. The Blackheath and Eltham estate has 130 residential tenancies. The Richmond and Sudbrook estate has 51 residential tenancies. 
		
	
	This information (excluding the information on London boroughs) is also published in the “Schedule of The Crown Estate’s properties rights and interests December 2011”, available on the Crown Estate’s website at:
	www.thecrownestate.co.uk/media/206857/schedule_of_properties_rights_and_interests.pdf
	HM Treasury is charged with general oversight of the Crown Estate’s business, including information about significant business developments and investment strategy, and does not hold information on individual properties.

Crown Estate Commissioners

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what assessment he has made of the Crown Estate's role in promoting (a) the big society, (b) volunteering and (c) other community and social action programmes; and if he will make a statement.

Chloe Smith: The Crown Estate is principally a commercial organisation. Under the Crown Estate Act 1961 it is tasked with maintaining and enhancing the value of the estate and the return obtained from it
	'but with due regard to the requirements of good management'.
	The annual surplus income is paid to the Exchequer.
	The Crown Estate can only promote volunteering and community and social action programmes that are linked in some way to the properties it manages. Examples include its Marine Stewardship programme and details on this and other such projects can be found in the Crown Estate's annual report. Copies are available in the House of Commons Library, or at
	www.thecrownestate.co.uk/sustainability

Crown Estate Commissioners

Jonathan Edwards: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he has considered allocating profits from the Crown Estate's marine assets directly to devolved Administrations to determine their own spending priorities.

Chloe Smith: The Government have no plans to hypothecate Crown Estate marine asset profits to devolved Administrations.

Cru Investment Management

Jim Cunningham: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will give consideration to holding an investigation under section 14 of the Financial Services Markets Act 2000 into the suspension of pension funds of the 20,000 investors in the Arch Cru Investment Fund.

Mark Hoban: I refer the hon. Gentleman to the answer I gave on 6 February 2012, Official Report, column 96W.

Cru Investment Management

Jim Cunningham: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will meet representatives of the All Party Group on Arch Cru Investment to discuss investors' pensions.

Mark Hoban: I would be pleased to meet the All Party Group if there are new substantive points that were not discussed at the Westminster Hall debate of 19 October 2011.

Financial Services

Hazel Blears: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what steps he is taking to encourage businesses in the financial services sector to develop in areas other than London and the South East.

Mark Hoban: Decisions about the location of financial services activity are commercial matters and are therefore not the responsibility of Government.
	However, industry body TheCityUK estimates that two thirds of the 2 million UK financial and professional services employees are based outside of London. The North West of England, for instance, plays host to a large cluster of financial, accounting, legal and management consulting firms, which collectively represent 11% of the regional economy.
	Manchester is at the heart of the financial services industry in the North West with over 90,000 people employed in the sector, making it the second largest financial centre in the UK.

PAYE: Fines

Lorely Burt: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer 
	(1)  how many complaints HM Revenue and Customs has received to date from (a) micro, (b) small, (c) medium and (d) large businesses relating to charges for late payment of PAYE in the tax year 2010-11;
	(2)  what the (a) total and (b) average monetary value was of fines issued to (i) micro, (ii) small, (iii) medium and (iv) large companies for late payment of PAYE in the tax years (A) 2007-08, (B) 2008-09, (C) 2009-10 and (D) 2010-11;
	(3)  how many (a) micro, (b) small, (c) medium and (d) large companies received fines for late payment of PAYE in the tax years (i) 2007-08, (ii) 2008-09, (iii) 2009-10 and (iv) 2010-11.

David Gauke: The information is not available and could be researched only at disproportionate cost.

Peacocks Group

Jonathan Edwards: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will meet the Chief Executive of Royal Bank of Scotland to discuss its decisions on Peacocks Group.

Mark Hoban: The Chancellor of the Exchequer meets senior members of UK banking institutions on a range of issues. As was the case with previous Administrations, it is not the Government's practice to provide details of all such meetings and discussions.

Revenue and Customs: Incentives

Priti Patel: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much was paid in bonuses to HM Revenue and Customs officials working on criminal investigations in (a) each of the last three years and (b) 2011-12 to date; and how much he expects to be paid in the next three years.

David Gauke: HMRC operates two bonus arrangements, which apply to staff across the Department:
	Performance awards tied to the annual performance for delegated grades (AA—Grade 6) and senior civil servants; and
	A recognition bonus scheme for delegated grades which recognises exceptional in year performance. This scheme is not open to members of the SCS.
	(a) The total value of bonuses paid to those working in HMRC Criminal Investigation was;
	For the financial year 2008-09—relating to performance in 2007-08 the value of bonuses paid in criminal investigation was £379,656.
	For the financial year 2009-10—relating to performance in 2008-09 the value of bonuses paid in criminal investigation was £435,689.
	For the financial year 2010-11—relating to performance in 2009-10 the value of bonuses paid in criminal investigation was £349,168.
	(b) During the current financial year (2011-12) HMRC has paid performance awards to the value of £275,326 which relate to performance in 2010-11. The information relating to recognition bonuses paid in the current financial year will not be available until the end of this financial year.
	For 2012-13 HMRC has a remit for a bonus pot of 0.47% of the AA-Grade 6 pay bill. The overall value of bonuses paid to those working in criminal investigation will be dependent upon the performance of individuals across the performance year. Beyond 2013 we cannot provide any forecasts due to the ongoing wider civil service reward reform work.

Revenue and Customs: Pay

John Robertson: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the maximum value was of end of year non-consolidated performance-related payments paid to staff in the delegated grades within the Debt Management Office of HM Revenue and Customs in each year since 2005.

David Gauke: The following table gives details of the value of performance related pay for staff in Debt Management offices in HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC).
	
		
			 Performance related payments awarded to Debt Management staff 
			 £ 
			 Grade/financial year 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 Grade total 
			 G6 8,309 1,468 1,310 1,483 12,571 
			 G7 15,862 8,722 2,215 3,763 30,561 
			 T 264 — — — 264 
			 SO 37,656 33,341 19,494 16,432 106,923 
			 HO 67,650 84,610 67,070 39,305 258,635 
			 O 185,395 223,335 193,500 147,092 749,322 
			 AO 238,745 253,976 242,004 203,312 938,038 
			 AA 40,105 42,922 42,057 34,924 160,009 
			 Year total 593,985 648,376 567,650 446,311 2,256,322 
		
	
	Data relating years prior to 2007-08 is not available, and could be researched only at disproportionate cost.

Taxpayers

Rehman Chishti: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what steps he plans to take to ensure taxpayers have access to information on how taxes are spent.

Danny Alexander: The vast majority of taxes are not hypothecated to specific expenditure and therefore making this connection is not possible.
	The main sources of information on public spending are the Public Expenditure Statistical Analyses (PESA) National Statistics releases published by HM Treasury. All of the recent releases are available on the Treasury website at:
	http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/pespub_index.htm
	These releases provide a range of breakdowns of spending in table format. For example, tables include spend by Government Department and spend by function of government (eg education, policing, defence). Additionally, as part of the Government's transparency agenda, a large amount of further data on public spending has been published. Each Department publishes details of all items of spending with a value of over £25,000 on their own website. HM Treasury has also published further detailed information from COINS underlying the PESA releases at:
	http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/psr_coins_data.htm
	and at
	http://data.gov.uk/dataset/coins
	The COINS data also includes the full details of the underlying raw data used to produce the 2009-10 Whole of Government Accounts (WGA). The full audited WGA for 2009-10 are also available on the Treasury website:
	http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/psr_government_accounts.htm

VAT: Publications

Tom Blenkinsop: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what assessment he has made of the potential effects on the UK book trade of the reduced rate of VAT on e-books in France and Luxembourg.

David Gauke: France and Luxembourg introduced a reduced rate of VAT for e-books on 1 January 2012. There has been no assessment on the impact of this on the UK book trade. However, under existing agreements with our EU partners the UK maintains a zero rate of VAT for books which is not available to other member states.

CULTURE MEDIA AND SPORT

Arts: Economic Situation

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport what recent assessment he has made of the effect of the economic situation on the arts industry.

Edward Vaizey: This Department has not carried out a formal assessment on the effects of the current economic situation on the arts industry, however, Arts Council England is monitoring this and has a committed 10-year goal to help the arts sector to survive and continue to grow by increasing efficiency and innovation.

British Sky Broadcasting

John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport whether he has any plans to bring forward legislative proposals to remove the retransmission fees paid by public service broadcasters to Sky.

Edward Vaizey: The question of 'retransmission fees' paid by public service broadcasters to platforms such as BSkyB will be considered in the communications review Green Paper to be published early this year.

Broadband: Brighton and Hove

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport what estimate he has made of the amount of public funding which would be required to bring ultra-fast broadband to the Brighton and Hove area; and if he will make a statement.

Edward Vaizey: The Department has not made any estimate of the amount of public funding required to bring ultra-fast broadband to the Brighton and Hove area.
	I understand that the East Sussex local broadband project, which includes Brighton and Hove, is progressing well and that a draft plan will be submitted by the end of February as required. This area has an indicative funding of £10.64 million allocated out of the £530 million to bring superfast broadband to 90% of the population and standard broadband to everyone else.

Broadcasting: Press

Jonathan Edwards: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport what discussions he has had with (a) Ofcom, (b) Press TV and (c) other bodies on the broadcasting licence for Press TV.

Edward Vaizey: None. Broadcast licensing is an operational matter for the independent regulator, Ofcom.

Broadcasting: Welsh Language

Jonathan Edwards: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport what discussions he has had on the inclusion of quotas for the broadcasting of Welsh language programmes in local digital television licences for stations planning to broadcast in Wales.

Edward Vaizey: The Government have consulted extensively on their proposals for local television and received a very small number of representations about Welsh language programming in response. The Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport, my right hon. Friend the Member for South West Surrey (Mr Hunt), also attended a local TV summit in Newport in 2011 which included a discussion on Welsh language programming on local TV.
	Instead of imposing specific quotas on local TV service providers, the Government are requiring that local television provides programming that meets the needs of the locality, increases the range of programmes about the locality and caters for the tastes and interests of people in that locality, so Welsh Language content could fit this very well.

Departmental Air Travel

David Crausby: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport on what occasions he has taken flights within the UK on official business since August 2010; what class of travel he used; and who accompanied him on each such flight.

John Penrose: The following table shows the occasions the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport, my right hon. Friend the Member for South West Surrey (Mr Hunt), took flights within the UK on official business since August 2010 and if accompanied by a special adviser (SA) or private secretary (PS):
	
		
			 Date Flight Accompanied 
			 26 August 2010 Heathrow to Edinburgh SA 
			 28 August 2010 Edinburgh to Heathrow SA 
			 9 September 2011 Gatwick to Glasgow PS 
			 9 September 2011 Glasgow to Belfast City PS 
			 9 September 2011 Belfast City to Heathrow PS 
			 18 November 2011 Gatwick to Newquay Cornwall PS 
			 18 November 2011 Newquay Cornwall to Gatwick PS 
		
	
	All flights were economy class. Section 10 of the Ministerial Code provides guidance on travel for Ministers and makes clear that Ministers must ensure that they always make efficient and cost-effective travel arrangements.

Departmental Internet

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport 
	(1)  how much his Department spent on maintaining its (a) Twitter feed, (b) YouTube channel and (c) Flickr channel in the latest period for which figures are available;
	(2)  how many people his Department employed to maintain its social media and networking sites and at what cost in the latest period for which figures are available.

Edward Vaizey: This Department has no staff committed solely to maintaining social media and networking sites. The sites are supported as part of normal communications work with no more than 10% of a full-time employees’ time spent on this work. In May 2010, we spent £34.35 on a flickr pro account (to store additional photos) which expires in May 2012.

Departmental Manpower

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport how many (a) full-time and (b) part-time employees his Department had in each year since 1997.

John Penrose: The information requested from 1999 onwards, is set out in the following table.
	Information prior to this date is not held by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).
	
		
			  Full-time Part-time Total 
			 1999 374 15 389 
			 2000 388 19 407 
			 2001 391 22 413 
			 2002 450 22 472 
			 2003 459 28 487 
			 2004 493 18 511 
			 2005 477 45 522 
			 2006 490 42 532 
			 2007 483 39 522 
			 2008 442 41 483 
			 2009 418 35 453 
			 2010 423 47 470 
			 2011 440 31 471 
		
	
	Totals are full-time equivalents based on the Office for National Statistics (ONS) requirements and figures represent average staff-in-post across the whole year.
	DCMS has recruited additional staff from other government Departments to deliver the London 2012 Olympics. These are short-term appointments and DCMS will downsize after the games.
	These figures also reflect a machinery of Government change in 2011 which saw a number of digital economy staff transfer from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, to DCMS. We remain on track to deliver a 50% reduction in our administration budget by 2013-14.

Departmental Press Releases

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport how many press releases his Department issued in the last 12 months.

John Penrose: The Department issued 129 press releases in 2011, all of which are available on our website.

Departmental Procurement

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport 
	(1)  what proportion of the total value of contracts issued or to be issued by his Department in 2011-12 have required successful organisations to put up a capital bond; and if he will make a statement;
	(2)  which contracts his Department has tendered or will tender in 2011-12 which require successful organisations to have a capital bond of more than £5 million; which contracts have not required such a bond; and if he will make a statement.

John Penrose: No contracts issued, or to be issued or tendered by this Department in 2011-12 have required successful organisations to put up a capital bond up to, or exceeding £5 million.

Digital Switchover Help Scheme

Gregory Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport what steps he is taking to ensure that groups of people who are eligible for assistance from the digital television switchover help scheme receive that assistance.

Edward Vaizey: The Switchover Help Scheme directly contacts everyone eligible for help well in advance of switchover in their area to provide them with information about the scheme and the cost, if any, to the individual. It also carries out a widespread information campaign, including advertising on TV, radio, press and buses, a publicity campaign and through outreach activities with local authorities, third sector groups, and in the community, to try to ensure that everyone knows about the help available to eligible people.

Local Broadcasting: Radio

Vernon Coaker: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport what the regulations are which govern the output of community local radio; and what plans he has to review such regulations.

Edward Vaizey: The statutory framework which sets out the licensing framework for community radio is set out in the Community Radio Order 2004, as amended by the Community Radio (Amendment) Order 2010. Full details of the licensing process and Ofcom's regulatory regime can be found at:
	http://licensing.ofcom.org.uk/radio-broadcast-licensing/community-radio/
	The Department is conducting a number of workshops with the community radio sector throughout February to consider the case for changes to the current legislative frameworks. In addition, the future role of community radio will be a consideration in the forthcoming communications review.

Local Broadcasting: Radio

Vernon Coaker: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport whether he has any plans to review the limit of the broadcasting radius for community local radio; and if he will make a statement.

Edward Vaizey: Ofcom is responsible for determining the coverage areas for community radio stations and consulted the sector on this issue in 2004. At this time we are not aware that Ofcom have any plans to review their current policy on the broadcasting radius for community radio stations.

Mobile Phones

Graeme Morrice: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport what recent assessment he has made of the potential benefits to consumers of lower mobile data roaming charges in Europe; what his policy is on the European Commission’s proposal for regulation in this area; and if he will make a statement.

Edward Vaizey: The Department has made no specific assessment of the benefits to consumers of lower mobile data roaming charges in Europe, although we remain actively engaged with stakeholders on the matter. We are considering various proposals put forward on price caps for retail costs for mobile data roaming in the European Union. These include the initial Commission proposals; revised proposals from the European Parliament and advice submitted by the European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC).
	The principles that guide our negotiating position on both the wholesale and the retail price capping (and thus the margin between the two) for voice and data roaming, remain that we wish to see price caps set at values that will continue to reduce roaming costs for consumers but at the same time provide sufficient incentive for new players to enter the market, therefore providing a sustainable competitive market place.

Museums and Galleries

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport how many times (a) he and (b) Ministers in his Department visited the (i) British Museum, (ii) Natural History Museum and (iii) Science Museum in an official capacity in the last year.

Edward Vaizey: The Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport, my right hon. Friend the Member for South West Surrey (Mr Hunt), visited the British museum twice and the Natural History museum once in the last year in an official capacity. As the Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries, I visited the British Museum eight times, and the Natural History museum and the Science museum one time each in the last year in an official capacity.

S4C

Jonathan Edwards: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport when he plans to bring forward proposals relating to the management structure of S4C under the terms of the Public Bodies Act 2011.

Edward Vaizey: This Department opened a public consultation on 1 February on proposals to amend S4C's governance arrangements. The consultation is open until 4 May 2012 and the Government look forward to considering all responses. Progress on the reform of S4C governance after then will depend on the outcome of the consultation.

Tourism

David Evennett: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport 
	(1)  what estimate he has made of the number of (a) UK and (b) overseas tourists who visited (i) Bexleyheath and Crayford constituency and (ii) the London borough of Bexley in the last five years;
	(2)  what estimate he has made of the number of people employed in the tourism industry in the London borough of Bexley in the last three years for which figures are available.

John Penrose: The Department does not record this specific information, but VisitEngland’s Great Britain Tourism Survey for 2008-10, reports that the London borough of Bexley attracted an average of 259,000 domestic visits annually, available at:
	http://www.visitengland.org/insight-statistics/major-tourism-surveys/overnightvisitors/UKTS2010/LA_County_2006_2010.aspx
	Details of visits are not collated at constituency level.
	Through the International Passenger Survey, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) record the number of visits made by overseas residents to London in each of the last five years. The ONS do not provide this information by London borough or constituency but the data can be found at:
	http://www.visitbritain.org/insightsandstatistics/inboundvisitorstatistics/regions/towns.aspx
	and is also summarised in the following table.
	
		
			 London 
			  Visits (Thousand) 
			 2006 15,593 
			 2007 15,340 
			 2008 14,753 
			 2009 14,211 
			 2010 14,706 
		
	
	In 2010, VisitBritain published a study by Deloitte about the economic contribution of the visitor economy. Within the study they provide the number of employees in the visitor economy by nation, the top 10 areas by volume of employees, and the top 50 districts with the highest share of employees by percentage. However, they do not provide this information for the London borough of Bexley. Full details can be found at:
	http://www.visitbritain.org/Images/Economic%20 case%20for%20the%20Visitor%20Economy%20-%20Phase%202%20-%2026%20July%202010%20-%20FINAL_tcm29-14561.pdf

INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Overseas Aid: Animal Welfare

Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what steps his Department is taking to promote animal health in (a) Africa, (b) India and (c) South America.

Stephen O'Brien: The Department for International Development's (DFID) research programmes are developing new diagnostic tests, medications and vaccines to combat a range of animal diseases which can have major economic impacts in Africa and South Asia and are applicable both at regional and global level. For example,
	(a) In collaboration with the UK Research Councils, DFID is already contributing to improved field control of animal trypanosomosis in Africa by using a new tool to aid accurate dosage of medication and improved diagnosis of parasites in goats and sheep in India.
	(b) DFID works closely with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to produce effective vaccines. More than 170,000 cattle have been vaccinated against East Coast Fever disease in Africa, while eight field pilot trials with improved Newcastle vaccine for poultry are under way in Africa and India.
	DFID's programmes also support partnerships with local manufacturers and distributors in Africa and Asia to promote animal health and ensure wider uptake of animal vaccines in rural areas.